Manipur: Four more Congress leaders join BJP

In a yet another blow to the Congress, four more MLAs from the party joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday. The four leaders who joined the BJP are Y Surchandra Singh, Ngamthang Haokip, O Lukhoi and S Bira.

They were felicitated at the BJP office by Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, state unit president K Bhabananda and President of Manipur state BJP Ksh Bhabananda Singh, among others. They were accorded a warm welcome at the function.

The defection comes in the wake of a party meeting held by Rahul Gandhi to strengthen the Congress in the North-eastern region. This is the latest in a series of defections from within the Congress ranks.  The Congress has been plagued with mass exoduses and is now facing a crisis. 

T Shyamkumar, now a minister in the BJP-led coalition government, was the first Congress MLA to join the BJP after assembly elections. He was sworn in as a cabinet minister on March 15. Congress MLA Ginsuanhau ​Zou had also joined the BJP after the last Assembly elections. Former Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely joined the BJP along with Delhi Youth Congress president Amit Malik ahead of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections. On Thursday, 23 out of 25 party councillors in the Itanagar Municipal Council (IMC) joined the BJP in the presence of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu and BJP state President Tapir Gao in Itanagar.