Holding on to CM’s post

MANIPUR Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh (62) started his working life as a footballer. He was recruited by the Border Security Force (BSF) to play for its team in domestic competitions. Biren Singh was part of the BSF squad that won the Durand Cup in 1981. After he resigned from the BSF, Biren Singh turned to journalism. He started a vernacular daily ‘Naharolgi Thoudang’ in 1992 and was its editor till 2001. That year, he sold his newspaper for Rs 2 lakh and fought his first election the following year as a candidate of the Democratic Revolutionary Peoples Party (DRPP).

After Biren Singh won his maiden election, the then Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh of the Congress took him under his wings. Later, Biren Singh formally joined the Congress and fought on the party ticket in 2007. He won and became the minister of irrigation and flood control and youth affairs and sports.

Biren Singh continued to rise in prominence as the CM’s confidant and trouble-shooter. However, after the elections in 2012, the relationship between Biren Singh and O Ibobi Singh started to sour. Having returned to power with a thumping majority, Ibobi had to accommodate other Congressmen and Biren Singh was dropped from the ministry.

Biren Singh joined the BJP before the 2017 Assembly polls. One of the accusations he hurled at Ibobi Singh was “dynastic politics”, pointing out that both his son and wife had got Congress tickets.

Ironically, while Biren Singh is now the CM, his wife SS Olish is a BJP MLA, and his son-in-law and former Congress leader RK Imo is a powerful MLA.

Biren won from the Heingang constituency in 2017 once again as a BJP nominee and became the Chief Minister of a coalition government. In 2022, he retained his seat and was made the Chief Minister for the second time.

As the violence between the Meiteis and the Kukis drags on, the chorus for the removal of Biren Singh as Chief Minister has grown. Biren Singh was stopped by his supporters from resigning amid high drama in Imphal on June 30. The CM came out of his residence in a convoy of vehicles, along with some 20 MLAs, including ministers, but hundreds of women blocked his path to the Raj Bhavan by forming a human chain. He returned to his residence after they asked him not to resign and chanted slogans in his support. Biren Singh’s political opponents, however, alleged that the “resignation drama” was “stage-managed” by the Chief Minister himself.

While Biren Singh continues to remain Chief Minister, the Unified Command set up to maintain law and order in the state is headed by Kuldiep Singh, former CRPF DG, who has been appointed Security Adviser to the Manipur government. This has given Biren Singh an opportunity to express helplessness when confronted with the question of continued disturbances in the state.

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