As Manipur burns, Biren govt loses partner after NPP exits

NT Correspondent

New Delhi/ Imphal

The troubled northeastern state of Manipur has entered a new phase of uncertainty with the National People's Party(NPP) on Sunday withdrawing support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government claiming that the N Biren Singh dispensation has "completely failed to resolve the crisis and restore normalcy" in the state. The withdrawal of support is however unlikely to affect the stability of the government as NPP has only 7 MLAs in the 60-member Manipur assembly with the BJP enjoying absolute majority in the House with its 32 legislators. The Biren Singh government also has the support of five MLAs of the Naga People's Front and 6 Janata Dal-United legislators. The Congress currently has five MLAs, and there are three independent in the House.

Sponsored; Meanwhile fresh incidents of violence rocked the state from Saturday night even as an indefinite curfew was clamped after people, agitated by the killing of three women and three children by militants in Jiribam district, attacked the residences of three state ministers and six MLAs earlier on November 16. Mobs set fire to the residences of three more BJP legislators, one of whom is a senior minister, and a Congress MLA in various districts of Imphal Valley even as security forces foiled the attempt of agitators to storm the ancestral residence of CM N Biren Singh, officials said. In a related incident, a mob vandalised the ancestral house of BJP MLA Kongkham Robindro in Manipur's Imphal West district on Sunday evening, police said.

The incident occurred a day after a house built by the legislator himself in the same district was attacked. The mob stormed the ancestral residence of Robindro at Mayang Imphal and demanded a meeting with him. Since the MLA was not at home, his father told the group members that he would convey to his son whatever message they had for him. The mob wanted to know the stand of the BJP MLA concerning the development, police said. The Kuki People's Alliance (KPA), a political party formed ahead of the 2022 Manipur election, had earlier withdrawn support from the BJP-led government in the state in view of ethnic violence. More than 200 have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in violence between Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kukis in Manipur since May last year.