Well, there has to be contenders to the throne. Not everyone, but there are a few aspiring candidates for the Chief Minister post now that the BJP has got absolute majority of 32 seats in the 60-member legislative Assembly 2022. In 2017, the party did not have a CM face as it was fixated on overturning the tables on the 15-year-old Congress regime. Somehow, N Biren Singh got lucky with the defeat of a few old warhorses like former Union Minister Th Chaoba Singh. As the BJP got only 21 seats next to 28 of the Congress, the Biren government was plagued more by internal dissension rather than by allies or Congress design. The BJP was forced to hastily cobble together a fragile coalition of parties and MLAs, including a Congress deserter, while the single largest party Congress was denied a chance. As such, the attention of the party was most of the time consumed in managing the fragile coalition and also in tackling infighting among the power centres within the party. Yet, he managed to weather the internal storms and brought the coalition to its logical end.
Although there were speculations of applying the Assam model where Himanta Biswa Sarma was made the CM and Sarbananda Sonowal shifted to Centre, during electioneering the mood of the party leadership combined with the utterings of party observers at public and closed meetings hints at N Biren Singh continuing as the leader, though certain elements within the party had been toying with the idea of new leadership.
The State incharge of BJP Dr Sambit Patra and Election in-charges had also been hinting at N Biren Singh returning as CM. Even BJP national president JP Nadda himself had hinted in his address at the Kakching Youth rally about the incumbent N Biren Singh returning as CM again, just short of announcing him as the CM face. So far, BJP’s campaign had been talking about progress on many fronts through the efforts of a double-engine push with a special focus on the achievements of N Biren Singh and his innovative ventures like Go to Hills or Go to Village mission. Now the million dollar question is whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would make a categorical announcement on who would be leading the next BJP government.
On January 6 at the virtual conference, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was very clear on the question of the next leadership as he appealed to the people of Manipur to vote for the BJP in the 2022 elections so that a BJP government led by N Biren Singh returns to continue the ‘good work’ of the double engine combine. We all know, there are claimants to the throne like Senior Minister Th Bishwajit and recent Congress defector Govindas Konthoujam.
There was talk of Minister Bishwajit teaming up with the state BJP president A Sharda Devi in the process of awarding party tickets to candidates of their choice. After the election results were out, media reports came out that Th Bishwajit the blessings of party president Sharda Devi has the support of 17 party MLAs out of 32 and camping which both of them vehemently denied later on. There was even talk of a conspiracy within the party of a certain section helping NPP candidates in the hopes that BJP is forced once again to seek the help of NPP in forming the government as NPP was deadly against N Biren continuing as CM.
Aspirations apart, one has to take into consideration as to which state leader contributed most in breaking the 30 plus barrier for the party. Well, the Modi magic seems to have worked here. But, who is responsible for the 30 plus dream coming true in the ground? Everyone who followed the campaign closely know that N Biren Singh has been criss-crossing the state everyday without rest and even attending camera meetings. Even before the official campaign, there are reports of him meeting scores of people including members of local clubs from every corner of the state and community leaders to garner support for his party. In short, he was fighting in the frontlines.
