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Nirmala Sitharaman, Kiren Rijiju leave for Manipur to decide next chief minister
N. Biren Singh, Thongam Biswajit Singh and Yumnam Khemchand Singh are the names doing rounds for the chief minister’s post in Manipur.
NEW DELHI: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and law and justice minister Kiren Rijiju, who are the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) central observer and co-observer respectively for the election of the leader of the Manipur BJP legislature party, have left for Imphal on Sunday to meet the newly elected MLAs of the state.
“Looking forward to being in Manipur today. Meet with @BJP4Manipur karyakarta. Joining me are Shri @KirenRijiju, @byadavbjp ji and @sambitswaraj ji. @BJP4India,” Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted on Sunday.
Union Minister for Labour and Employment Bhupendra Yadav will also be attending the meeting with the Manipur MLAs.
More than a week after the saffron party secured a majority to return to power in Manipur for a second consecutive term, there is no clear indication of when the next government will take charge or who will head it. There are speculations of two candidates running for the chief minister’s position, N. Biren Singh and Thongam Biswajit Singh. However, according to media reports, there is a third contender too, speaker in the previous assembly Yumnam Khemchand Singh who is backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Earlier on Saturday, both N. Biren Singh and T. Biswajit Singh met with union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president JP Nadda in New Delhi. Speaking to the press, N. Biren Singh said, “I never contested elections for CM or any other post but as a worker for my party… We are a party which is extremely disciplined and there are rules and norms by which we function. So, we will wait for the party high command to take a call on when the chief minister will take oath.”
Unlike Uttar Pradesh, where the second-time chief minister Yogi Adityanath is set to take oath on March 25, BJP has not yet revealed the names of the chief ministers of the other three states- Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand- even after 10 days of the election results.
