IMPHAL, OCTOBER 13: Ahead of Manipur Assembly polls, one more prominent Congress MLA and former minister in the Chief Minister O Ibobi-led ruling Congress Ministry in the state tendered his resignation from Congress party as well as from the post of MLA today. Manipur goes to polls early 2017.
Francis Ngajokpa, MLA of Tadubi constituency in Manipur’s Senapati district, one of the seniormost MLAs in the ruling party, submitted his resignation papers to Speaker through state assembly officials and Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (I) president TN Haokip in person this morning.
Elected two times on Congress ticket since 2002, Francis, who had held various ministerial portfolios including Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Economic and Statistics, resigned from the primary membership of Congress following ‘pressure from his workers’ in Tadubi constituency. Recently political workers of Francis convened a meeting at Maram town, about 80 km north of Imphal, during which it was resolved that they will continue to support the MLA only if he resigns from Congress party.
With his resignation, so far three senior Congress leaders and MLAs left the ruling front.
The other two are senior most Congress leader and former Food and Civil Supplies, Education and Public Health Engineering minister Yumkham Erabot of Wangkhei constituency and Nongthombam Biren, a former Irrigation and Flood control minister, who was elected from Heingang constituency for three consecutive terms.
Erabot left Congress on September 12 and joined Bharatiya Janata Party while Biren who quit Congress and resigned as MLA on October 6, is yet to join any party till date. Meanwhile, MPCC(I) has reportedly accepted resignation of Francis from the membership of the party.
The party-wise position in the 60-member Assembly is: INC (45) plus 4 Trinamool Congress members who recently joined with Congress, BJP(2), NCP (1), Lok Jan Shakti (1).
