The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed its first government in Manipur, with Nongthombam Biren Singh at the helm. Singh and eight other ministers were sworn in at a ceremony at the Raj Bhawan in Imphal on Wednesday. The ceremony was attended by Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Prakash Javadekar and Jitendra Singh, BJP's north-east in-charge Ram Madhav, Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal, Arunachal CM Pema Khandu and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sharma. Former CM Okram Ibobi Singh too was present.
The nine-member cabinet includes BJP's Thongam Biswajit Singh, National People's Party's Yumnam Joykumar Singh, L Jayanta Kumar Singh, Letpao Haokip and N Kayisi, Nagaland People's Front's Losi Dikho, Lok Janshakti Party's Karam Shyam, and Congress' Thongam Shyamkumar, who defected from the Congress after the poll results were out. NPP's Joykumar will be the deputy CM.
Speaking to DNA, Thongam Biswajit Singh said that the BJP will try to prepone the show of strength as soon as possible. On Tuesday, Governor Najma Heptulla said that she will ask the BJP to prove their numbers by March 22-23.
"The main agenda of the government is development. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah have instructed us to ensure that the blockade is lifted in the first place, and then work towards eliminating corruption in the administration,"said Singh.
Singh said three more ministers will soon be inducted into the Cabinet. "We will also include some of the MLAs in important posts like that of the Assembly's deputy Speaker, the parliamentary secretary, etc.," said Singh.
The BJP's maiden government in the state comes after a series of dramatic events that saw power move from one party to another. With one crossing over from the Congress, and 11 MLAs from regional parties supporting them, BJP tally of 21 rose to 33.
BJP president Amit Shah and Venkaiah Naidu could not attend the swearing-in as their chopper developed a technical snag.
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