GUWAHATI: The BJP has initiated the process for government formation in ethnic violence-hit Manipur.
BJP Parliamentary Board on Monday appointed Tarun Chugh, the party’s national general secretary, as central observer for the election of the legislative party leader in Manipur.
The State was placed under President’s rule on February 13 last year after the then Chief Minister N Biren Singh had stepped down just a day before his government was due to face a no-confidence motion and a critical floor test.
Later, the President’s rule was extended for another six months with effect from August 13. It will expire on February 13.
Chugh’s appointment signalled that the President’s rule is unlikely to be extended any further.
The development came even as speculation about government formation intensified after the BJP’s central leadership “summoned” the NDA legislators of Manipur to New Delhi.
A majority of the 52 MLAs from the NDA reached the national capital. BJP sources said the rest of the NDA legislators would reach Delhi by Monday night.
Two of the Kuki-Zo MLAs are, however, unlikely to travel due to ill health, the sources said.
Two meetings have been scheduled with the BJP’s central leadership on Tuesday. The BJP MLAs will attend one meeting at 3 pm. The NDA legislators will attend the second meeting at 4 pm.
Former Chief Minister N Biren Singh and Assembly Speaker Satyabrata Singh are among MLAs who are in New Delhi along with BJP state president A Sharda Devi.
A huge challenge for the Centre will be to first win the confidence of the Kuki-Zo tribals. The state’s ten Kuki-Zo MLAs, including seven from the BJP, have not been able to commit to participating in any future government.
The Kuki-Zo community has stuck to its guns on the Union Territory with a separate legislature demand. On January 28, three student bodies from the community jointly held a rally on the theme “We want a political solution, not government.”
The rally was organised to register public concern amid talks about the proposed formation of a popular government in the absence of a settlement, and to reiterate the demand for a political solution to unresolved grievances.
The ethnic violence, which erupted on May 3, 2023, had left over 260 people dead and some 60,000 others internally displaced. A large majority of the displaced people are still lodged in relief camps.