Imphal, March 21 Nongthombam Biren Singh was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Manipur for the second consecutive term on Monday, 12 days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a thin majority in the February-March assembly elections, results of which were declared on March 10.
A day after he was named as the leader of the newly-elected BJP legislators in the state, Singh was administered the oath of office by Governor La Ganesan during a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan here.
Besides the Chief Minister, five newly-elected MLAs of the BJP and its ally Naga People's Front (NPF) were also sworn-in. The five Ministers are Thongam Biswajit Singh, Yumnam Khemchand Singh, Govindas Konthoujam, Nemcha Kipgen all from BJP, and Awangbow Newmai of NPF.
Biswajit Singh, a second-in-command of the previous BJP government, was also the strong contender for the top post while former assembly speaker Khemchand Singh and Govindas Konthoujam, who was the Manipur state Congress president and last year joined the BJP, tried to capture the CM's chair but the party's central leaders chose Biren Singh.
Former minister Nemcha Kipgen is the only woman minister in Biren Singh council of ministry which would likely be expanded later as the berths of six ministers are vacant.
Biren Singh said that he would "soon" expand his ministry.
"My government would deliver a corruption free, drug free and violence free Manipur. Fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Manipur under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mantra of Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Viswas, aur Sabka Prayas would be our top priority," he told the media.
BJP President JP Nadda, Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, BJP's national spokesperson Sambit Patra, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, his Tripura counterpart Biplab Kumar Deb, Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton and a host of top dignitaries were present in the swearing-in-ceremony.
The BJP, in the February-March elections, had secured a thin majority of 32 MLAs in the 60-member Assembly and returned to the power for second consecutive term.
A former football player-turned-journalist-turned-politician, Singh, 61, a former Congress leader, joined the BJP in October 2016, and in the recent Assembly elections, won from his traditional Heingang constituency for the record 5th time.
He began his career as a football player and got recruited in the Border Security Force (BSF) as a sportsman, and played for the BSF team in domestic competitions. After quitting the BSF job, despite having no experience, he began a vernacular daily, "Naharolgi Thoudang" in 1992 and worked as its editor till 2001 before he joined in the active politics in 2002.
In 2002, he fought and won his first electoral battle from Manipur's Heingang assembly constituency as a candidate of the Democratic Revolutionary People's Party.
He retained the seat in 2007 on a Congress ticket and served as a minister till 2012. Four years later, he joined the BJP and in 2017, he won from the same assembly constituency again and led the first BJP government since 2017.
The BJP's erstwhile ally the National People's Party, secured seven seats while the Janata Dal (United) won six seats, and the Congress and the Naga People Front bagged five seats each in the recent elections.
The Kuki People's Alliance, a newly floated tribal based party, managed two seats while three Independent candidates also got elected to the Assembly.
The NPF, the JD (U) and two Independent members have announced their support to the BJP government.
Meghalaya Chief Minister and NPP supremo Conrad K. Sangma had also said that his party is ready to join the BJP-led government in Manipur if the dominant party invited them.
The NPP, the estranged ally of the BJP in Manipur, had fielded 38 candidates and fought the recent Assembly elections separately and won seven seats.
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