Five legislators in Manipur joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on August 19 after they resigned from the Congress. The MLAs met BJP National President JP Nadda in Delhi on August 19.
The five Manipur MLAs who had resigned from Congress and joined the BJP, included Okram Henry Singh who is the nephew of CLP leader Okram Ibobi Singh.
BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav, National Vice President Baijayant Panda and Manipur CM N Biren Singh were present during the formal joining.
“Manipur had been under bad governance (Kushashan) of the Congress for almost 15 years till 2017, when NDA came to power. Since then Manipur became one of the fastest-growing states with 16% GDP growth,” said Ram Madhav during the event.
He said the Congress had been trying to destabilise the Manipur government by unfair means, but because of the people and elected representatives’ faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, they were unable to do so.
“After the Congress moved a no-confidence motion in the house, even Congress MLAs in good number supported our government. Cross voting in democracy during no-confidence motion has legal implications, and therefore honouring our request, the MLAs who supported our government have resigned from their post and are ready to contest election again,” Madhav said.
Earlier on August 10, the BJP-led coalition government won the confidence motion via voice vote in the Assembly in Manipur and Chief Minister N Biren Singh retained his government in the state.
Further, after the completion of confidence motion, six Congress MLAs who had abstained from voting tendered their resignation from the MLA position to Speaker Y Khemchand.
Out of the six, five joined the BJP on August 19.
