Y Khemchand Singh elected leader of Manipur BJP legislature party, set to take over as next CM

Union Home Minister Amit Shah also chaired a meeting of BJP national general secretaries at the party headquarters annexe across the road. Shah, sources said, was later scheduled to preside over a meeting of NDA MLAs from Manipur, including around 17 from other NDA constituents in the state, at Manipur Bhavan.

According to the sources, the process of government formation will begin “over the coming days” and likely conclude this week itself since the “Centre is committed to ensuring government formation in the state at the earliest”. The new government is likely to include “more representation for communities, including Kukis”, sources said.

At least three MLAs who were part of the meetings in New Delhi said that two MLAs, one each from the Kuki-Zo and Naga communities, are likely to take oath as Deputy Chief Minister: Nemcha Kipgen, a Kuki-Zo MLA from the BJP representing the Kangpokpi constituency, and Losii Dikho, an MLA from NDA ally Naga People’s Front representing the Mao constituency.

Kipgen was one of two Kuki-Zo ministers who had been part of Biren Singh’s cabinet when the conflict in the state broke out and continued to hold on to the position till his resignation, even though she, along with the rest of the Kuki-Zo MLAs, refused to engage with his government. Losii Dikho is a three-time legislator and was a minister in the first Biren Singh government.

BJP sources said this will allay the fears of hill communities of being ignored in a Meitei-dominated Assembly. “It will also ensure that all communities have a stake in maintaining peace in the state and sporadic incidents of violence do not spiral out of control,” a BJP leader said.

Khemchand’s journey

Khamchand was part of the internal BJP dissent against Biren Singh’s leadership, and the only Meitei MLA who proactively reached across the aisle to visit a Kuki-Zo relief camp recently.

Interestingly, he started his political career alongside Biren Singh in 2002, as part of the Democratic Revolutionary People’s Party, which was started in the aftermath of an agitation by Meitei groups against the Government of India’s extension of its 1997 ceasefire with the Naga insurgent group NSCN(IM). The outfit had been formed in the aftermath of an agitation objecting to the inclusion of a new clause – that this ceasefire would be “without any territorial limits”, which was seen as a threat to the “territorial integrity” of Manipur.

Biren Singh was elected as an MLA in 2002 from the party, which he eventually merged with the Congress in the assembly. But Khemchand, a senior taekwondo sportsperson and teacher who recently received the 5th Dan black belt, only entered the Manipur legislative in 2017 from the Singjamei constituency on a BJP ticket, after having joined the party in 2013, and became a part of the first-ever BJP government in the state.

In the first Biren Singh-led government, where most of the BJP MLAs were greenhorns, Khemchand became the Speaker of the Assembly. And in the second, more secure Biren Singh-led government, which came to power in 2022, Khemchand was a cabinet minister.

As the fury of the public against the inability of the government to effectively address the conflict was repeatedly expressed in Manipur’s valley, with people attacking the homes of legislators, Khemchand’s residence in Imphal was attacked with a grenade in October 2023.

But though he was a part of Biren Singh’s ministry, when rumblings within the ranks began to grow in 2024 and intensified over time – with BJP MLAs from the Valley queuing up before the party’s central leadership over the months, including the Prime Minister’s Office seeking the replacement of the CM – Khemchand was part of these dissidents.

In fact, as a cabinet minister, he, along with Speaker Th. Satyabrata Singh, was the most senior BJP leader who built the pressure on the BJP central leadership, ultimately leading to the collapse of the dominoes and Biren Singh’s resignation as chief minister a little over a year ago.

He and the Speaker were two key leaders who had been summoned to Delhi by the BJP leadership shortly before Biren Singh’s resignation to seek their views, and Khemchand was learned to have warned the BJP leadership that the government would likely collapse if the CM was not replaced.

In the days of uncertainty that followed Biren Singh’s resignation and the series of meetings that followed, Khemchand’s name had surfaced as a possible chief ministerial face. However, instead of another CM being installed, President’s Rule was imposed on February 13 last year. Within months, as pressure began to build on the Centre to reinstall a popular government in the state, Khemchand was among those advocating for this.

While Khemchand had maintained a relatively low profile, staying away from making public statements through the course of the tumults in the state’s social and political landscape, he dramatically came into the spotlight in December 2025 by visiting a relief camp in a Kuki village in Naga-majority Ukhrul district, interacting with those displaced by the conflict housed there.

His office shared photos of him with inmates of the relief camp, including one of him carrying a small girl in his arms. This could be seen as the start of him preparing the ground for a much more significant role in the state’s politics, amidst the deep divide that has been firmly in place in the state since the start of the conflict. Even though Kuki-Zo groups rubbished his visit as an “irresponsible publicity stunt” and said that he had not been invited to the camp, it was a gesture that had not been attempted earlier.

“He is considered a trusted RSS man in the Manipur BJP, and is more acceptable to the Kuki-Zos and Nagas, who see him as a liberal Meitei. Both these things go in his favour amidst the political concerns in the state,” said a political observer from Manipur.

A BJP leader also said that the choice of Khemchand was governed by the fact that he has good relations across communities and an open line with Kukis in particular. Given his proximity to the RSS, he is also trusted by Delhi, sources said. “The idea is to constitute a government that instils confidence among all communities,” the leader said.

Shortly after Khemchand was elected, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh, who was appointed Central Observer by its highest decision-making body a day earlier, congratulated him while underscoring his experience and leadership.

Chugh will oversee the BJP’s next steps towards government formation in the state.

“We belong to a disciplined party, and we are loyal soldiers of that party. We are happy with the decisions taken by the party. We will work together for the betterment of the people and the development of the state,” Thongam Biswajit Singh, BJP MLA from the valley, said.