With former Manipur Congress president Govindas Konthoujam joining the BJP on Sunday, the BJP continues to poach from the opposition camp in the northeast. He was an MLA and the Congress chief in Manipur just five days before, but the BJP was able to convince him to join them.
After N Biren Singh, who became Chief Minister under the BJP after leaving Congress, he is the top high-profile state Congress politician to join the saffron party. The BJP will be the beneficiary of Konthoujam’s decision ahead of the Manipur Assembly elections early next year.
“The Prime Minister has cared for the north-east and recently five ministers from the region have been inducted into his Council of Minister. Manipur promises to make the Modi-led government stronger,” Biren Singh said.
With Kanthoujam’s resignation, Congress now has 16 members of the 60-member Assembly, while the BJP currently has 25. Its members might grow if it sweeps the bypoll for Kanthoujam’s constituency of Bishnupur.
After Kanthoujam’s resignation, the Manipur assembly has an effective strength of 56 members, with the BJP having 25 members and the Congress has 16. In the 2017 elections, the BJP won 21 seats. The Congress won 28 seats to become the single-largest party. But the BJP’s political moves allowed it to become the government after gaining support from other parties.
The Chief Minister said he was also in Congress but the vehicle could not move as the driver was asleep. “Since Modi’s government came in, things have been peaceful in Manipur where there had been violence,” he said.
Konthoujam, a six-time MLA and former minister, joined the BJP in the presence of Biren Singh, Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni, and the party’s state in-charge, Sambit Patra. According to Sambit Patra, Konthoujam joined the BJP after being impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development work in the northeast.
