By M.Devanand Sharma
Imphal (Manipur),June 21 : After 4 NPP MLAs of the Manipur Legislative Assembly resigned from the BJP led government in the state ahead of the Rajya Sabha Election held on June 19, National Chief of the NPP Conrad Sangma, who is also the Chief Minister of Meghalaya and BJP’s architect of North East India Himanta Biswa Sarma arrived in the state in a special chartered flight today.
Both the leaders rushed to Manipur to settle the dispute between the state unit NPP and the BJP, however, there is no official information about the reason for their visit in the state.
Both the leaders of NPP and BJP arrived at Imphal airport by chartered flight from Guwahati via Shillong at around 1:00 pm . Soon after their arrival, both went to Classic Grande Hotel here and met the NPP MLAs of Manipur who tendered their resignation from the Ministry.
Conrad met with all four party MLAs who were cabinet Ministers including one who served as a Deputy Chief Minister till three days back , to know their views .
According to insiders ,during the meeting there were serious difference between the MLAs with some deciding to go back to BJP while others wanted to be with the Congress.
According to sources ,most of the NPP leaders actually do not have any problem with the BJP but they are against the autocratic functioning of the Chief Minister , N. Biren Singh and it is learnt that they are ready to be with BJP again provided the present Chief Minister is removed from his position .
NPP state president Thangminlien Kipgen issued a statement listing out reasons why the party had withdrawn its support. He said despite it being a coalition government, there was no steering committee or a common minimum programme or the name of the coalition government.
The parting of the NPP MLAs from the Manipur BJP has created a serious problem to the relationship between the NPP and the BJP at the centre. NPP is a partner of the BJP led NDA government at the center. Source said that Conrad Sangma is in the state to settle the differences between the state NPP and the state BJP.
Both Conrad Sangma and Himanta Biswa had also met the Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and other leaders of the BJP.
The visit of Conrad Sangma and Himanta Biswa is significant as the much talk about criticism to the recent overtaking of the political theater under the control of Chief Minister N. Biren Singh and Speaker Yumnam Khemchand may be healed if their mission is a success.
Both the leaders were seen busy talking to their respective counterparts . However, there are no reports of any amicable solution between the two political parties.
Meanwhile Congress President Ningombam Bupendra Meitei tweeted ,“How long will the minority government of BJP with 23 MLAs stay in power? How long will it take for the Governor to dismiss the government? How long will it take for a special assembly session to be convened? How can 23 MLAs in 52-member Assembly be in power?”
After the meeting both the leaders who arrived here left imphal airport around at around 9:30 pm.
