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Confusion prevailed soon after the JD(U)’s Manipur state president wrote to Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla stating that the party does not support the BJP-led NDA government in the state as sources close to the party’s lone MLA claiming he had not withdrawn support, a position reiterated by the party’s central leadership.
“It is, hereby, further reiterated that the JD(U) Manipur unit does not support the BJP-led state government and our lone MLA Md Abdul Nasir shall be treated as an Opposition MLA in the House,” stated a letter signed by Manipur JD(U) state president Ksh Biren Singh.
A senior state JD(U) leader emphasised that the letter is not a “withdrawal” of support but a “reiteration” of the state JD(U)’s already existing stand of not supporting the state government. “In the last Assembly session too, the party’s Lilong MLA, Nasir had sat in the Opposition benches,” the leader said.
However, a source close to Abdul Basir told The Indian Express that he has not withdrawn support to the government. “He will travel to Delhi tomorrow and clarify his and the party’s stand on the issue,” said the source.
JD(U) national spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad in a video claimed some “rumours” were being circulated about the party’s Manipur unit. “Let me be very clear that Ksh Biren Singh has been removed from his party post over charges of indiscipline. The JD(U) continues to be a part of the NDA and supports the governments not only in Manipur but also in Bihar and other states,” he said.
The Manipur JD(U)’s letter comes two months after another NDA constituent, the National People’s Party (NPP) headed by Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma, expressed “deep concern” and announced the withdrawal of its support to the Biren Singh government over its failure to “restore normalcy” in the state which has been hit by ethnic violence since May 2023.
The JD(U) had won six of the 60 seats in the 2022 Assembly elections but months later after JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar walked out of the NDA in August 2022, five of its MLAs jumped ship and joined the BJP, a move which Speaker Thokchom Satyabrata Singh accepted as a merger.
“When the JD(U) broke ties with the INDIA bloc and joined the NDA in January last year, we had written to then Governor (Lakshmi Prasad Acharya) saying we will give issue-based support to the state government. Now, we are making it clear that we do not support this government,” the Manipur JDU leader supporting the decision to not support the government said.
