Delhi/Imphal, Oct 4 (IANS) BJP MLAs and leaders from Manipur, including former state Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, would soon meet the party’s central leaders to discuss the formation of a popular government in the state.

Before leaving for the national capital, former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, while speaking to the media at the Imphal International Airport, said a delegation is heading to Delhi to meet central leaders.

“Would urge the central leaders to facilitate the formation of a new popular government, resolve the crisis faced by internally displaced persons (IDPs) and reopen key highways at the earliest,” he said.

Former Health and Family Welfare Minister Sapam Ranjan Singh, former Social Welfare Minister Heikham Dingo Singh, and BJP legislator Tongbram Robindro Singh accompanied Biren Singh to Delhi on Saturday.

On Saturday, a group of MLAs, including former minister Leishangthem Susindro Meitei, Thangjam Arunkumar and Lourembam Rameshwor Meetei, all BJP MLAs, had separately left Imphal for Delhi.

Speaker Thokchom Satyabrata Singh, former minister Govindas Konthoujam and MLAs Kongkham Robindro, Sapam Kunjakeshwor, Thounaojam Shyamkumar and Karam Shyam are also expected to leave Imphal on Sunday.

The state had a BJP-led coalition government headed by former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh before the imposition of President’s Rule on February 13 this year.

Singh, who quit the Chief Ministerial post on February 9, four days before the President’s Rule was imposed in the state due to prolonged ethnic violence, which broke out on May 3, 2023.

The 60-member Manipur Assembly, which, after the promulgation of President’s Rule, has been put under suspended animation, has a tenure till 2027.

Meanwhile, Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla is already in New Delhi. Bhalla, a former Home Secretary, met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday and called on Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan on Friday at the Vice-President’s Enclave in New Delhi.

Senior government officials, including Chief Secretary Puneet Kumar Goel and Commissioner-cum-Secretary (Home) N. Ashok Kumar, have also departed for Delhi.

However, the purpose of their visit has not been disclosed. After the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha passed the statutory resolutions, the President’s Rule was extended for a further period of six months with effect from August 13, 2025.

Before the extension of President’s Rule in Manipur, the former Chief Minister, several MLAs and party leaders persuaded the Central leaders in August to form a popular government in the state.

–IANS

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