Speculation was rife about a change of guard in Manipur as early as Saturday (February 8, 2025) evening, when N. Biren Singh left for New Delhi in a chartered flight soon after holding a meeting with the MLAs of the ruling National Democratic Alliance, whose constituents include the Naga People’s Front and the Janata Dal (United). Out of 46 MLAs of the alliance, only 20 turned up for the meeting. Mr. Singh resigned a day later on Sunday, February 9, 2025.
The meeting was apparently convened to discuss the Budget session starting on Monday (February 10, 2025) but BJP insiders said Mr. Singh wanted to find out how many MLAs were with him as a dissident group had been seeking a change in leadership. The dissidents were unhappy with how he handled the situation arising out of the prolonged ethnic conflict between the tribal Kuki-Zo and Meitei communities that broke out on May 3, 2023.
Apart from the dissidents, mostly from the Meitei community, seven BJP legislators belonging to the Kuki-Zo community have stayed away from the State’s capital Imphal.
On February 7, the State Congress announced it would move a no-confidence motion against the Biren Singh government. This was four days after a delegation apprised the Governor of a threat to “hound out” any MLA who goes for no-trust against the government.
The Congress, which has five MLAs, was hoping to get the support of the BJP dissidents apart from the six MLAs of the National People’s Party to take the number beyond 10 required for the no-trust to stand.
Two recent developments are believed to have worked against Mr. Singh.
One was the “93% confirmation” by the non-profit Truth Labs that the voice in a leaked audio clip heard making offensive remarks against a minority community matched his. The other was the possibility of a section of BJP Ministers and legislators siding with Congress for the expected no-confidence motion on Monday, February 10, 2025.
A footballer-turned-editor of a local publication, the 64-year-old Mr Singh won his maiden Assembly election from the Heingang constituency in 2002 as a candidate of the regional Democratic Revolutionary Peoples Party. He later joined Congress and rose to become an influential Minister but fell out with the party’s leadership and joined the BJP ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections.
He took charge as the 12th Chief Minister of Manipur in March 2017 after helping the BJP cobble up an alliance despite the party winning 21 seats, seven fewer than Congress’s 28. He defied the odds to lead the BJP to victory in the 2022 Assembly polls and become the Chief Minister for the second term.
Meanwhile, members of an unidentified armed group looted several arms and a large quantity of ammunition from an outpost of the Manipur Rifles in the State’s Thoubal district on Saturday (February 8, 2025) night.
A district police official said the armed group came in three vehicles and looted at least six SLRs, three AK rifles, and different types of ammunition along with 12 magazines from the outpost in Thoubal’s Kakmayai area.
