BJP breaks silence on Manipur MLA exodus to Congress; says 'monitoring; no action yet'

The BJP-led government in Manipur is on the verge of collapsing with nine ruling coalition members, including four ministers, resigning on Wednesday. Those who quit included Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar Singh. Party's Manipur in charge Prahlad Singh Patel on Thursday said that no action has been taken against the three MLAs as of now and the party leadership is monitoring the situation. 

Speaking to ANI, he said, "Neither the party nor the legislative assembly has taken action on the resignation of the three BJP MLAs from Manipur, as of now. The party leadership is monitoring the situation." 

The Congress has said that it is confident of forming the new government under former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh. On Thursday, the party is scheduled to meet Governor Najma Heptulla to stake a claim on the government. 

The numbers game

The Manipur assembly has 60 seats. In the 2017 Assembly elections, Congress won 28 seats and BJP 21. While the Congress emerged as a single largest party, NPP and Naga People's Front (NPF) won 4 seats each, LJP, TMC, and an Independent candidate won one seat each. Stitching a post-poll alliance with all non-Congress MLAs and one Congress MLA Thounaojam Shyamkumar, the BJP acquired the magic number and thus Governor Najma Heptulla invited the saffron party to form the government. 

Soon after, seven other Congress MLAs- Sanasam Bira Singh, Ginsuanhau, Oinam Lukhoi Singh, Ngamthang Haokip, Yengkhom Surchandra Singh, Kshetrimayum Bira Singh, and Paonam Brojen Singh also joined the BJP-  and the numbers of BJP's coalition reached 40.

However, the grand-old party requested the Assembly Speaker to disqualify 8 of its former legislators though the petition remained pending.

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BJP's strength reduced to 23 MLAs

In a major development earlier this year, the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Rohinton Nariman in March restrained Thounaojam Shyamkumar Singh from entering the Legislative Assembly and disqualified him from being a minister with immediate effect. Soon after, the Assembly Speaker disqualified him as an MLA. Similarly, in June, the Manipur High Court restrained the other seven Congress MLAs who defected to the BJP from entering the state Assembly unless their disqualification petitions are disposed of by the Speaker.

READ | Manipur's BJP-led govt on the brink as 9 MLAs extend Congress support: Seat numbers here

Thus, BJP lost 8 MLAs because of legal blockage. As three others resigned from the party and joined Congress, the number propelled to 11. Moreover, one MLA of TMC, four NPP MLAs and one independent MLA also pulled back their support. With this, the ruling BJP-led coalition has 23 MLAs left with it.

READ | Congress 'confident' of forming govt in Manipur as MLAs pull out from BJP-led coalition

On the other hand, Congress has 20 MLAs of its own as one member has been disqualified and seven rebels barred from entering the assembly. With the help of nine MLAs who withdrew support from Biren Singh's BJP government, the Congress will have the support of 29 MLAs in the house whose effective strength in case of a floor test will be 52. The magic number for the parties will thus be 27. As all eyes are set on Manipur in the upcoming days, the number game suggests massive political chaos, horse-trading and a probable return of resort politics in the state.

READ | Manipur govt on the verge of collapse as 9 ruling coalition MLAs withdraw support