Nongthombam Biren Singh was sworn in for the second consecutive term as a Chief Minister at the Raj Bhavan in Imphal on Monday.
Governor La Ganesan administered the oath of office and secrecy to Singh, who was elected from Heingang assembly constituency in the recently concluded 12th Manipur assembly elections.
Five MLAs, four from the BJP and one from the Naga People’s Front (NPF), were sworn in as members of the council of ministers. They are Th Biswajit, Yumnam Khemchand, Govindas Konthoujam and Nemcha Kipgen from the BJP and Awangbow Newmai from the NPF.
Biren Singh began his career as a footballer and got recruited in the Border Security Force (BSF) playing for its team. He resigned from the BSF and began the vernacular daily Naharolgi Thoudang in 1992 and worked as its editor till 2001. In 2002, he joined the Democratic Revolutionary People’s Party and won the assembly elections from Heingang seat. He retained the seat in 2007 on a Congress ticket after joining the party in 2003. He became a cabinet minister in the Congress-led government in 2012. He quit Congress in 2016 and joined the BJP. He was elected in the 2017 elections and became the first BJP chief minister of Manipur.
Biren Singh was elected from the Heingang seat for the record fifth time, defeating his rival, Congress candidate P Sharatchandra, by over 17,000 votes.
BJP national president JP Nadda, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, deputy chief minister of Nagaland Yanthungo Patton, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Okram Ibobi Singh, newly elected MLAs of the BJP, the Janata Dal (United), the Congress, the NPF, the Kuki People’s Alliance (KPA) and the top officials of the state were also present during Monday’s swearing-in ceremony held for the first time after three decades at the lawn of the Raj Bhavan in Imphal.
In the recently concluded assembly elections, the BJP got an absolute majority by winning 32 of the 60 seats, while the National People’s Party, an ally of the previous government in Manipur, became the second-largest party by securing 7 seats.
The Congress and the NPF secured 5 seats each. The newly formed KPA bagged 2 while 3 independent candidates also won the elections.
