NPF may withdraw support from Manipur’s BJP govt

KOLKATA/GUWAHATI: Former Nagaland chief minister and NPF president T R Zeliang on Saturday said the party will withdraw support from the BJP-led coalition government in Manipur after the Lok Sabha results are announced on May 23.
“After an intense deliberation and review meeting with the party functionaries and the NPF MLAs of Manipur State, the NPF party has decided in principle to pull out our 4 NPF MLAs from the BJP led Govt.in Manipur headed by N Biren Singh soon after the LS election is completed,” Zeliang’s tweeted.
Confirming the development, NPF MLA from Manipur’s Phungyar seat, K Leishiyo, told TOI that BJP’s indifferent attitude towards its alliance partners, especially NPF, led to the “in principle” decision to withdraw the support of four party MLAs from the N Biren Singh-led government.
Leishiyo said, “National People’s Party (NPP) has four MLAs and all of them have got ministerial berths. LJP, which has one MLA, also has a ministerial berth. The NPF — despite having four MLAs — got only one ministerial berth. After the assembly polls, we were promised two ministerial berths. Even after two-and-half years, the promise remains unfulfilled. We didn’t ask for any cabinet berths, it was BJP which promised us. BJP is very indifferent as far as NPF is concerned.”
The development comes days after Biren claimed that there is no threat to his government amid reports that BJP and other party MLAs from the state are camping in Kolkata in a bid to topple the government.
Local TV channel Times of Manipur reported that a group of MLAs led by works minister Th Bishwajit Singh is camping at a hotel in Salt Lake, Kolkata, to oust Biren after the results are declared on May 23. The report said Biren has refuted the claims and said the MLAs must be in Kolkata on personal work. BJP functionaries, including the party’s treasurer Robin Blackei, were unavailable for comments.
Y Surchandra, a Congress MLA who defected to BJP last year, denied the reports. “NPF has not withdrawn support to our government. Its president has released a statement reiterating the support to chief minister N Biren Singh. Information on MLAs camping in Kolkata is also false. There is no threat to the government,” Surchandra told TOI.
However, even if the NPF withdraws support, it will not affect the Biren government in the 60-member assembly. Eight of the 28 Congress MLAs, who had won the 2017 polls, defected to BJP last year, taking the ruling party’s tally from 21 to 29 in the assembly. The other coalition parties are NPP with 4 MLAs and LJP, AITC and Independent with one legislator each.