Despite the budget session of the Assembly, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and cabinet Minister James Sangma were absent from the House since yesterday.
The Sangma brothers are currently in Imphal to prepare the political groundwork after the results of the Manipur Assembly elections were announced yesterday.
NPP which won seven seats in the Manipur elections has unanimously elected N Kayisii, MLA from Tadubi as the party’s legislative leader.
The election of Kayisii as the parliamentary party leader in Manipur Assembly was done in the presence of Conrad and James.
Due to the absence of the two Sangmas, all queries in the State Assembly today had to be replied to by Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong and Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui.
It may be mentioned that BJP won 32 seats in the 60-member Manipur Assembly thus obtaining a majority on its own to form the government.
Although caretaker Chief Minister N Biren Singh had said that the BJP would align with like-minded parties, he has indicated that the NPP would not be part of the new government.
The BJP may continue its alliance with the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and also rope in Janata Dal (United) and Kuki People’s Alliance, a party which was floated in January this year.
During the election campaign in Manipur recently, BJP strategist in the North East and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had clearly stated the NPP would not be a part of the next Manipur government headed by BJP.
It may be noted that BJP was able to form the previous government in Manipur with the help of NPP’s four MLAs after the 2017 elections. At that time, BJP got only 21 seats as against 28 of the Congress.
However, the relationship between BJP and NPP strained in due course to the extent that in June 2020 all four NPP MLAs withdrew from the government much to the anger of Chief Minister Biren Singh.
The NPP decided to return to the government a few days later after a meeting between four MLAs led by Conrad Sangma with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.
