Manipur CM Biren Singh resigns a day ahead of Assembly session

Around two years after the ethnic violence broke out in Manipur and crippled the state, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on Sunday submitted his resignation to Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla a day before the crucial Assembly session.

A Raj Bhavan official said that the Governor accepted the resignation letter and requested Biren Singh to continue as the caretaker Chief Minister until alternative arrangements are made.

He was accompanied by BJP's northeast in-charge Sambit Patra who came to Imphal from Delhi. In the national capital, he held a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party president, J.P. Nadda.

A top party leader told IANS that following the directions from the central BJP leaders, Singh submitted his resignation letter to Governor.

"Soon after his arrival in Imphal on Sunday afternoon, he went to the Chief Minister's secretariat and then went to Raj Bhavan and submitted his resignation letter," the party leader, refusing to be quoted, said.

N. Biren Singh's resignation comes amid hectic political activities, with the opposition Congress already announcing to move a no-confidence motion against the BJP government in the upcoming assembly session, set to begin on Monday.

In his letter to the Governor, Biren Singh expressed gratitude for the Central government's interventions and developmental initiatives, stating that it had been an honour to serve Manipur.

"I am extremely grateful to the Central government for timely actions, interventions, developmental work and implementation of various projects for safeguarding the interest of every single Manipuri,” he said.

"My sincere request to the Central government through your good office is to continue with the same. I take the opportunity to enumerate the most important ones of them," Biren Singh said, citing these as maintaining the "territorial integrity of Manipur which has a rich and diverse civilisational history over thousands of years", cracking down "on border infiltration and to formulate policy for the deportation of the illegal immigrants" and "the fight against drugs and narco-terrorism".

He also listed the "stringent and fool-proof revised mechanism of FMR with the biometric being stringently applied" and "time bound and faster border which is underway".

Nongthombam Biren Singh, 64, took over as the 12th Chief Minister of Manipur on March 15, 2017, after leading the BJP to its first victory in the state, and retained power in the 2022 Assembly elections.

However, the ethnic violence between Meitis and Kuki-Zos that broke out in May 2023 in the state, had cast a cloud over his second term.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the Raj Bhavan said that Singh along with a few ministers and other leaders met Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla and submitted his resignation letter.

A senior party leader said that it is likely that the party's central leadership in consultation with state leaders would announce the new leadership within the next couple of days.

Though there have been reports for quite sometime that Biren Singh may quit the chief ministerial position following the directions of the central leaders, the development on Sunday took everyone in the political as well as non-political circles by surprise.

During the meeting with the Governor, N. Biren Singh, was accompanied by BJP's northeast in-charge and Lok Sabha member from Puri constituency, Sambit Patra, state unit BJP President Adhikarimayum Sharda Devi, several cabinet ministers and party leaders.

On June 30, 2023, Singh found himself at the centre of a political storm when he tried to resign following intense pressure over the state's ongoing ethnic violence.

The “resignation drama”, was marked by protests by thousands of his supporters, mostly elderly women and tore his resignation letter.

The protestors blocked his convoy as he attempted to reach Raj Bhavan. Singh got down from his vehicle and tried to convince them, but they refused to budge, forcing him to return home.

Several hour long demonstration outside Chief Minister's official residence culminated dramatically when Cabinet Minister L. Susindro Meitei read out Singh's resignation letter in front of the crowd, only for the women to snatch it from his hands and tear it apart.