Manipur CM Biren Singh expands cabinet, inducts 6 more ministers

Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, here on Saturday, expanded his cabinet by inducting six more Ministers.

Governor La Ganesan during a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers — H. Dingo Singh, Letpao Haokip, Dr. Sapam Ranjan Singh, Th Basanta Singh and L Susindro Meiteo, all from the BJP and Khasim Vashum from Naga People’s Front, the saffron party’s ally.

Besides the Chief Minister, his cabinet colleagues and senior civil and security officials and state BJP President Adhikarimayum Sharda Devi were present in the swearing-in-ceremony.

The Biren Singh-led government, which assumed office for the second consecutive term on March 21, on Saturday had its first cabinet expansion with the inclusion of six new ministers taking the BJP-led government’s cabinet to its full strength of 12 ministers.

In the 12-member council of ministry, now BJP has 10 ministers and its partner ally NPF has two.

The Bharatiya Janata Party secured a thin majority of 32 seats in the 60-member state Assembly in the February-March Assembly elections, results of which were declared on March 10.

Earlier on March 21, besides the Chief Minister, four BJP MLAs Thongam Biswajit Singh, Yumnam Khemchand Singh, Govindas Konthoujam, Nemcha Kipgen and Awangbow Newmai of NPF had taken the oath of office and secrecy.

Former Minister Nemcha Kipgen is the only woman minister in Biren Singh council of ministry.

The NPF, which contested the Assembly elections separately without any pre-poll alliance with the BJP, had secured five seats.

The BJP’s erstwhile ally the National People’s Party, secured seven seats while the Janata Dal (United) won six seats, and the Congress and the Naga People Front bagged five seats each in the recent elections.

The Kuki People’s Alliance, a newly floated tribal based party, managed two seats while three independent candidates also got elected to the Assembly.

The NPF, the JD(U) and two independent members have announced their support to the BJP government.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.

As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.

Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.

Digital Editor