Biren Singh wins floor test in Manipur Assembly, BJP forms first govt in state
Imphal: BJP's Nongthombam Biren Singh, who on Wednesday took oath as the Chief Minister of Manipur, won the floor test on Monday with the support of 32 MLAs in the 60-member Assembly.
There was no division of votes in the exercises which saw the lone TMC MLA also supporting the Nongthombam Biren Singh government.
The BJP has 21 MLAs in the 60-Member house. It has the support of four MLAs of Naga Peoples' Front (NPF), four of National Peoples' Party (NPP), the lone MLA of Lokjanshakti Party and Independent MLA Asab Uddin besides a Congress legislator who was inducted also in the Council of Ministers.
Lone Trinamool Congress MLA T Robindro Singh also extended support to the BJP-led government although his party's central leadership alleged that he had "not consulted the party" over it.
"I have extended support to the BJP after consulting the party's central leadership. I have neither violated the party's order nor have done anything against its interests. Whatever the party had asked me to do, I have done that," Singh told PTI.
Earlier in the day, Yumnam Khemchand Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was elected as the Speaker of Manipur Assembly.
The Congress had emerged as the largest party in the state winning 28 seats, but the party fell short of majority.
BJP had won 21 seats and made a bid for power claiming it has the support of 33 legislators in Assembly. Biren Singh was sworn in as the chief minister after Governor Najma Heptulla invited the BJP to form government in the state.
On Wednesday, eight other ministers from the BJP and its alliance partners also took oath along with the chief minister. Y Joykumar of NPP has been designated as the Deputy Chief Minister.
A national level football player-turned-journalist, Biren Singh was a key member of the Congress party when he decided to join BJP in October 2016, after falling out with then-CM Okram Ibobi Singh. Singh started his political journey with a regional Democratic Revolutionary People’s Party in 2002.
Manipur Governor Najma Heptulla on Tuesday invited Singh, who was unanimously elected the leader of the 21-member BJP legislature party on Monday, to form the government.
