An advisor of Manipur chief minister, Rajat Sethi, today tweeted that the defection came even as Congress VP Rahul Gandhi was holding an emergency coordination meeting of the Northeast Congress units in Delhi with the aim of strengthening the congress party. With a jibe at Rahul Gandhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s strategist Himanta Biswa Sarma welcomed to his party today 4 more Congress legislators in Manipur. Last month Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed a coalition government in the state under CM N Biren Singh. The Congress got the most seats in the assembly election but could not gather support from other parties in the state. They needed the support of only three legislators that it needed for a majority.
4 MLAs including Congress lawmakers Y Surchandra, Ngamthang Haokip, O Lukhoi and S Bira were inducted into the BJP by Manipur CM N Biren Singh and party president of the state K Bhabanada in the presence of BJP’s North East-in-charge MP Ram Madhav and Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convenor of Northeastern zone, Mr. Himanta Biswa Sarma.
The move comes only a day after 23 Congress councilors joined the BJP in the Itanagar Municipal Council in presence of Arunachal Pradesh CM Mr. Pema Khandu and BJP state President Mr. Tapir Gao and two days after 65 Congress leaders joined the BJP ahead of the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) election. In Delhi also the party lost two senior leaders Arvinder Singh Lovely and Barkha Singh to the BJP after they suffered a defeat in the recently held municipal corporation election in Delhi.
Biswa Sarma said “Yesterday, Congress Vice President Mr. Rahul Gandhi chaired a meeting with their top leaders to strengthen their party in Northeast and today 4 of their MLAs have joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). This shows that Rahul Gandhi can’t show any further progress of the party here”
Less than two years ago Mr. Himanta Biswa quit the Congress party and joined the BJP, vowing to oust Congress governments in the northeast zone. He blamed only Rahul Gandhi for his leaving the party, alleging that “Rahul Gandhi paid more attention to his pet than me when I went to meet the Congress vice-president in New Delhi”.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went from 0 to 21 seats in this 2017 election, and Mr. Biswa Sarma was ready with support letters from allies for the party to form the government in Manipur. The Congress now has only 1 seat more in the assembly than the BJP, which said that more Congress leaders will join it soon. Mr. Sarma also said that his next target is Tripura and after that Meghalaya. Currently, Tripura is ruled by Left and Meghalaya has a Congress government. Nagaland’s ruling party, the Nagaland People’s Front (NPF) is part of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led national coalition NDA.
