Congress appoints Manipur state chief month after predecessor joins BJP; polls in focus

Over a month after Govindas Konthoujam quit as the Manipur Congress president and joined BJP, the Sonia Gandhi-led party named a replacement for this post. Holding interim charge since Konthoujam's resignation, Nambol MLA Nameirakpam Loken Singh Nameirakpam was appointed as the full-time president of the Manipur state unit. Elected to the state Assembly 4 times on a Congress ticket from 2002, he has handled various Ministerial portfolios such as Agriculture, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. 

This development assumes significance in the wake of the Manipur Assembly polls which are due early next year. At present, Congress has 16 members in the Manipur Assembly as against that of BJP which is the single-largest party with 24 MLAs. On September 5, the Congress president appointed MP Pradyut Bordoloi and MLA Rakibul Hussain as AICC observers for the poll-bound state. 

Mid-term scare for BJP

In the 2017 Manipur Assembly election, Congress emerged as the single-largest party by winning 28 seats in the 60-member House whereas BJP bagged 21 seats. Even as it harboured hopes of forming a government in the state again, BJP thwarted its plans by forging a post-poll alliance with the National People's Party, the Naga People's Front and LJP. Thus, the saffron party which had drawn a blank in the 2012 polls formed a government in Manipur for the first time with N Biren Singh taking oath as the Chief Minister on March 15, 2017.

The N Biren Singh-led government faced a mid-term crisis on June 17, 2020, when 9 MLAs including the Deputy CM withdrew support to the ruling coalition. However, it barely managed to prove its majority on the floor of the Assembly on August 10 as 8 Congress MLAs stayed away from the Assembly proceedings despite the party issuing a whip to vote against the trust motion moved by the Chief Minister. The government was supported by 28 members including the 4 NPP MLAs on the floor of the Assembly. 

Meanwhile, two Congress legislators Th Lokeshwar and Mirabai Devi reportedly threw chairs and benches in the Assembly alleging that the confidence motion was not conducted properly. In a major jolt for Congress, 6 out of the 8 abstaining Congress MLAs submitted their resignations to the Speaker on the same day. Currently, the state government has the support of 36 MLAs including 4 MLAs from NPP and NPF respectively, the lone LJP MLA and three Independents.