Our Correspondent
Imphal, Feb. 21 (EMN): Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is confident of making its “own BJP government” in the ensuing 12th Manipur assembly elections.
“We’re making our own BJP government, we’ll not take any help from any party”, Singh said while responding to a question on the sidelines of a flag hoisting function for a party candidate at Wabagai constituency on Sunday.
In the 2017 elections, the BJP, which came second by winning 21 seats after Congress, which won 28 seats out of 60 seats, formed the government with the support of four MLAs each from National People’s Party (NPP) and Naga People’s Front, besides others.
When asked about who will be the next chief minister if the party is elected to power, he said, “That will be decided by the higher authority (of the party). I am a simple karyakarta. I have to make a majority and then the other decision will be taken (by higher authority).”
On the pre-poll violence in Manipur, the CM said that the law and order is looked after by the election commission.
Meanwhile, NPP national president and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Sunday made it clear that there were a “lot of situations and challenges” in the BJP-led coalition government in the last five years.
Speaking to reporters after attending a flag hoisting ceremony of NPP candidates in Kshetrigao assembly constituency, Sangma said, “We’ve made it clear that the coalition is a system where we need to trust. Coalition means trust, coalition requires you to consult everybody and partners who are with you.”
“So we felt that in the last five years, we’ve faced situations which were very difficult for us but even then, we stuck with the coalition. It's a known fact that there were challenges,” he added.
Manipur will go to assembly elections on February 28 and March 5 to elect its 60 legislators. The counting will take place on March 10.