Manipur poll results are a clear mandate against Ibobi, Congress: Ram Madhav

Guwahati: Results in Manipur are a clear mandate against the Congress and the Ibobi Singh government, said BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, who is camping in Imphal, on Sunday.

Sources in Imphal told this newspaper that Assam’s finance minister and North-East Democratic Alliance convener Himanta Biswa Sarma had played a key role in breaking the deadlock and helping the BJP form the government in Manipur.

Mr Sarma has been aided by National People’s Party leader Conrad Sangma, son of the late P.A. Sangma, who was not happy with the way his party was treated in the National Democratic Alliance.

The NPP, founded by P.A. Sangma, was a part of the NDA but was ignored after the BJP came to power in 2014. Earlier, an NPF spokesman said, “We are in alliance with the NDA and therefore we will support the North-East Democratic Alliance, which comprises non-Congress parties, even in Manipur.”

He asserted that the NPF will not join the Congress even if approached to form the government in the state, maintaining the party’s earlier stance of making the region Congress-free.

While the BJP is tight-lipped about its chief ministerial candidate for Manipur, sources said that BJP spokesman N. Biren has emerged as the frontrunner in the race.

The Naga People’s Front (NPF) and National People’s Party (NPP) have bagged four seats each, while the Lokjanshakti Party, Trinamul Congress and an Independent candidate have won one seat each.

The ruling Congress has emerged as the largest party by winning 28 seats, followed by the BJP with 21 seats in the 60-member Manipur Assembly.