Biren Singh to take oath as CM of Manipur for 2nd term today

The inauguration takes place more than ten days after the election results were announced.

On Monday at 3 pm, Biren Singh will take the oath of office as Manipur’s chief minister for a second term. The oath ceremony comes after days of deliberation and more than a week after the northeastern state’s election results were announced.

Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Sunday that the 61-year-old leader had been chosen as the BJP’s candidate for a second term. Other leaders who visited the state ahead of the announcement included Kiren Rijiju and Bhupendra Yadav.

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The top BJP leaders were seen congratulating Singh after he was “unanimously elected” to lead the party. “It’s a good decision that everyone agreed on. It will ensure that Manipur has a very good, stable, and responsible government, which will be built further because the Centre today, led by Prime Minister Modi, places special emphasis on the northeast state. Therefore, this decision will go a long way in providing Manipur stability and good governance together,” Sitharaman told reporters.

Last week, Biren Singh had travelled to Delhi twice and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah amid talks over the top post. On Saturday night, a meeting stretched late into the night at Amit Shah’s residence. Even though he had won his stronghold Heingang constituency and had expressed confidence about the BJP’s return to power before the state elections, there were reports of complaints against Singh by colleagues during his tenure.

This time, the BJP ran for all 60 seats in Manipur and won 32 of them. The state was critical for the party to win in order to maintain its presence in the northeast.

In this round of state elections, the ruling party won four of the five states. While Yogi Adityanath will take the oath of office in Uttar Pradesh on Friday, the party has yet to name chief ministers for Goa and Uttarakhand.

On Sunday, Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the AAP, lashed out at the BJP, claiming that the AAP had already chosen its cabinet in Punjab while the BJP was still deliberating over chief ministers.