BJP Convenes Meeting Of Manipur MLAs In Delhi on Sunday

Guwahati: In what has been seen as another attempt to explore the possibility of revoking the President’s rule in trouble-torn Manipur, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has convened a meeting of the party’s Manipur lawmakers in Delhi on Sunday to discuss the situation of the ethnic violence-hit Manipur.

Former chief minister N Biren Singh told reporters that all the BJP legislators have been asked to attend the meeting, even as they were not given the exact agenda. “It might be for government formation. Most of us are going,” he said.

Manipur has been under the President’s rule since February, when N Biren Singh’s government was dismissed as violence continued sporadically despite the deployment of thousands of security personnel.

The state’s Meitei and the Kuki-Zo communities have shut each other out from areas dominated by them since ethnic clashes began in May 2023 and left at least 260 people dead and displaced 60,000.

Informing that the party’s northeast coordinator, Sambit Patra, called most of them and asked them to attend the meeting, a BJP MLA said, “BJP state president A Sharda Devi also called some of the lawmakers regarding the meeting. She may also attend the meeting.”

Sources in the party said that the BJP’s Kuki-Zo MLAs have also been invited for the meeting.

It is significant that the state’s Kuki-Zo MLAs, including seven from the BJP, have been demanding a separate administration before the formation of a new government.

The development coincided with President Droupadi Murmu’s two-day visit to Manipur. President Droupadi Murmu was accorded a grand a civic reception at the City Convention Centre, Imphal. She on Friday participated in the 86th Nupi Lal Day observance at the Nupi Lal Memorial Complex in Imphal.