Rise and fall of Biren Singh: From a Congress leader to BJP CM

Guwahati: Nongthombam Biren Singh's resignation on Sunday brought the curtains down to the 64-year-old BJP leader's stint as Manipur Chief Minister since 2017.

With Biren as the leader, BJP got its first government in Manipur in 2017 by ending 15 years of Congress rule with Okram Ibobi Singh as the Chief Minister (2002-2017). Biren was Ibobi's "trusetd lieutenant" in Congress for long till he jumped ship to BJP in 2016.

Biren's first tenure between 2017 and 2022, was by and large smooth, with Manipur not reporting a surge in two of its major problems: militancy and blockades. This, in fact, had drawn a lot of praise from PM Narendra Modi during a campaign rally for the 2022 Assembly polls, when the PM asked voters to give Biren another five years to take Manipur to the path of prosperity.

BJP won the elections for the second straight term in March 2022 and increased its tally to 32, two more than the majority (in the House of 60). But Biren's road to CM's seat was not smooth enough as the party high command kept him waiting for 10 days as younger Thongam Biswajit Singh was another important contender. Biren took oath as CM for a second straight term on March 11, 2022.

Serious trouble unfolded a year later in April 2023, when Biren, a prominent face of the Meiteis, had reportedly written to the Centre for inclusion of the Meiteis community (53 percent of population) as Scheduled Tribe. This came after an order of the Manipur High Court to consider the same. The move added fuel to the anger among the Kukis, who were already up in arms over demolition of three churches in Meitei-dominated Imphal in March. The churches were demolished following a court order as those were constructed in reserve forest land. Kukis and Nagas are the two major scheduled tribes in Manipur. Clearing forests from encroachments and destruction of poppy cultivation, mainly in Kuki hills, were among the major promises of Biren in his second term as CM. The outbursts of this anger, perhaps, triggered violence in Kuki-dominated Churachandpur district on May 3, 2023, that took the form of a Meitei-Kuki conflict leading to deaths of over 250 persons and displacement of over 60,000 others. A video showing two Kuki women being paraded naked in the Valley on May 4, 2023, also caused a lot of embrassment to the Centre and BJP.

Leader of the Meiteis:

Even as the conflict physically divided the Meitei-dominated Valley from the Kuki hill districts and Kukis raised the demand for a "separate administration," Biren stood strongly in favour of the majority Meitei community. He repeatedly supported the demand by the Meiteis for fencing of the border with Myanmar, a National Register of Citizens (NRC) to detect "illegal migrants" belonging to the Kuki-Chin communities and a crackdown on poppy cultivation. The Centre too listened to Biren and decided to fence the border and scrapped the Free Movement Regime that allowed the local tribes to move free across the border without travel documents.

The move, however, did not pacify the anger with the BJP losing both the Lok Sabha seats to Congress in May 2024 elections. At least 10 Kuki MLAs, including seven belonging to BJP, skipped the Assembly and demanded Biren's resignation as CM from the Kuki areas. This group included three MLAs of Kuki People's Alliance, an ally of the BJP government.

As sporadic violence continued despite the presence of a large number of central security forces, in November 2024, National People's Party (NPP), BJP's biggest ally having six MLAs, withdrew support. NPP chief and Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma even openly asked BJP president JP Nadda to replace Biren for his "complete failure" to control the Meitei-Kuki clash. Even several BJP MLAs also skpped a meeting called by Biren in November last year. But Biren's pro-Meitei stance, perhaps, stopped the Centre and the BJP high command from removing him. But another setback came in September 2024, when a Kuki organisation submitted an audio tape in the SC alleging Biren's role in the conflict. The apex body asked for a forensic report of the audio and is likely to issue a directive in the next hearing.

But amid all this, Opposition Congress on February 7 announced its plan to move a no-confidence motion against Biren government. Biren was called to New Delhi by Home Minister Amit Shah for a meeting on Sunday, following which Singh resigned. BJP, however, has not yet named a replacement.