Congress on verge of losing Manipur

The Congress had lost Arunachal Pradesh to a regional outfit after a similar split in the state CLP.

Nipamacha Singh said he had also resigned from the post of Manipur Assembly Speaker and his resignation letter was submitted to the Deputy Speaker, Karam Babudhon Singh.

Nipamacha Singh and former irrigation minister L Chandramani Singh said Keishing should resign immediately. Nipamacha Singh was elected leader of the Manipur State Congress Legislature Party and Chandramani Singh as convenor of the newly-formed party’s legislature wing.

They said that altogether 25 MLAs including 23 of the Manipur State Congress, one Independent member and one Congress MLA — Deputy Speaker Babudhon Singh — were supporting the newly-formed party in the state Assembly.

Nipamacha Singh said that as Babudhon Singh was holding the post of Deputy Speaker, it was not proper for him to join the Manipur State Congress. He would remain as the Congress MLA supporting the newly formed party, he said.

He said he had also submitted letters of withdrawal of support from the ministry by the breakaway group to the Chief Minister and the Governor.Singh said, “We wanted to settle the political crisis arising out of the demand for a change of CLP leader within the party itself but our demand was not heard by the Chief Minister and the Congress high command. The two are responsible for the split of the Congress in Manipur.”

The crisis in the Congress ministry had surfaced on November 23 when 15 of the 34 Congress MLAs decided to demand a change in the CLP leadership.As the number of MLAs increased to 22, the demand was intensified and two Central observers of the Congress came here last Thursday but no solution was brought about.

Meanwhile, Keishing said this evening that he was yet to get any letter from the newly-formed Manipur State Congress about the withdrawal of support.