Nongthombam Biren Singh, Manipur's second-time chief minister, has scored the winning goal for the Bharatiya Janata Party this time around too.
Sixty-one years old, Singh is a former journalist and an avid footballer. In 1992, he started ‘Naharolgi Thoudang,’ a vernacular daily newspaper and served as its editor till 2001. He was also recruited into the Border Security Force in his youth.
A Congress-turned-BJP leader, Singh has been active in politics for more than two decades. He was first elected to the Manipur Assembly in 2002 and this time too, he won from his seat Heingang.
Biren Singh cemented the saffron party's gains in the northeastern region with a clear mandate in Manipur, an outcome that could help the BJP in Tripura as well.
Despite seeing his share of rebellions and controversies in his term, "being a footballer, Biren knows well how to score goals and defend," as Amit Shah said in one of his rallies.
Biren joined politics in 2002 after contesting succesfully from Heingang Assembly Constituency as Democratic Revolutionary People’s Party candidate. Just before that, a sedition charge was slapped against him for an article which the government believed was in favour of insurgents.
In 2003, Biren Singh joined Congress under the mentorship of Okram Ibobi Singh, a crucial leader for Congress and a CM for 15 years in the state until 2017.
2017 was a crucial year for Manipur as it marked the culmination of differences between Biren Singh and the former CM Ibobi Singh.
The Congress’ prospects looked uncertain after it faced flak for frequent attacks by militants and blockades (sometimes lasting months) by various ethnic groups.
In 2016, when many sidelined Congress leaders joined the BJP, due to the Modi wave that had swept the country two years earlier, Biren Singh too thought it was time for a switch and jumped ship to the saffron party.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP won 21 seats in the 60-member Assembly and the ruling Congress emerged as the single largest party with 28 seats.
With both the parties jockeying for power, Biren Singh convinced the Naga People’s Front (NPF) and National People’s Party (NPP), which won four seats each, to come on board to help the BJP make history and form its first government in Manipur.
A few Congress MLAs too joined him and Biren ascended Manipur's throne.
After BJP rode to victory, Singh announced that NPP would no longer be part of the next government but BJP would maintain the "coalition dharma" with NPF despite getting an absolute majority.
NPP in 2020 had threatened to quit the coalition government citing its differences and style of functioning of Biren Singh but was later convinced by the BJP high command to remain part of the alliance.
As Biren Singh takes his oath today, it remains to be seen whether the BJP's trust in him will pay off and whether the northeastern state will continue to vote for teh saffron party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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