In a setback to BJP’s Manipur plans, Kuki-Zo Council asks Kuki faces to steer clear of govt
KZS reiterates its demand for a separate administration arrangement for Kuki-Zos, citing a series of their tribes' collective decisions amid ethnic division and displacement in the state
Yumnam Khemchand Singh was elected the legislature party leader in Delhi. (Express photo) While the BJP presses ahead with its efforts to put in place a new government in Manipur, the Kuki-Zo Council (KZC) has now publicly reiterated that Kuki-Zo representatives will not participate in the government – a position that complicates the party leadership’s reported move for installing a Kuki Deputy Chief Minister in the new dispensation led by Y Khemchand Singh, the newly-elected leader of the BJP Legislature Party.
In a statement Wednesday, the KZC said its stand stems from a series of collective decisions taken over the past month amid continuing ethnic division and displacement in the state.
A leading civil society organisation, KZC has been at the forefront of voicing the concerns and demands of Kuki-Zos in Manipur.
“The Kuki-Zo people cannot and shall not participate in the formation of the Government of Manipur,” the KZC’s statement said, referring to a Governing Council meeting held on December 30, 2025, that included “all constituent tribes, apex bodies, and regional organisations”.
It described the decision taken at this Governing Council meeting as unanimous and rooted in “the unspeakable atrocities committed against the Kuki-Zo people and the enforced physical separation imposed by the Meiteis”.
This position was “further reaffirmed” at what the KZC called the “Lungthu Meeting” held in Guwahati on January 13, 2026 — a joint meeting of Suspension of Operations (SoO) groups, the Kuki-Zo Council and Kuki-Zo MLAs.
According to the KZC, the Lungthu meeting “resolved that the Kuki-Zo people shall not participate in the formation of the Manipur government unless the State and Central Governments provide a clear and written assurance committing to the political demand of the Kuki-Zo people.”
Setback to BJP’s outreach
The KZC’s statement is politically significant because BJP leaders, in recent weeks, have been engaged in intense back-channel outreach to its Kuki legislators as part of government formation talks.
Of the BJP’s 37 MLAs in the 60-member Manipur Assembly, the party has 7 Kuki-Zo legislators with the remaining belonging to the Meitei community.
BJP sources have indicated that the emerging formula could include a Kuki Deputy Chief Minister, with senior Kuki leader Nimcha Kipgen tipped to take the post under CM Y Khemchand Singh, a Meitei face.
Such a move was seen as an attempt to signal inclusion and bridge ethnic divides, especially after months of violence and de facto territorial separation between the Meitei-dominated valley areas and the Kuki-Zo hill areas in Manipur.
However, the KZC’s latest assertion underscores the intense popular pressure within the Kuki-Zo areas against joining any Imphal-based government.
Since the eruption of the ethnic conflict in the state in May 2023, Kuki civil society bodies and tribal organisations have framed participation in the state government as undermining the community’s core political demand: a separate administrative arrangement.
The Council reiterated that demand in unequivocal terms. It said the Kuki-Zo people have “legitimately demanded a separate administration from the Meitei government in the form of a Union Territory with a legislature”.
“Under these circumstances, it is neither logical nor acceptable for the Kuki-Zo people to join a government formed with those from whom we have been violently separated,” the KZC said.
Warning to Kuki MLAs
Significantly, the KZC also drew a line between collective decisions and individual political choices, in what is being read as a warning to elected representatives who may still consider joining the government.
“KZC further clarifies that any Kuki-Zo MLA who chooses to disregard the collective decision taken at the Lungthu Meeting will be doing so in their individual capacity and KZC shall not be held accountable for the consequences arising from such unilateral decisions,” the Council said.
It also urged “all concerned MLAs to respect the collective will, sentiments, unity and political aspiration of the Kuki-Zo people”.
Tightrope for Kuki leaders
For Kuki MLAs, the current situation is politically fraught. On one hand, participation in government could bring administrative access, funds and a formal voice in decision-making at a time when relief, rehabilitation and security remain pressing issues. On the other, going against the declared line of apex tribal bodies risks being seen as betraying a wider political movement that has crystallised around the demand for separate administration.
The BJP, too, faces a delicate balancing act – between projecting a broad-based, inclusive government and not appearing to marginalise ground sentiment in the hills. The KZC’s statement frames a challenge for the BJP – that merely ensuring symbolic representation of Kuki-Zos in the new dispensation alone may not be enough without moving the needle on the larger political question.
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