Manipur’s titular king Leishemba Sanajaoba clinched the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Manipur defeating the Congress candidate T Mangibagu on Friday.
Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, after congratulating Leishemba Sanajaoba, said he didn’t want to elaborate much about the election result and the current political scenario in the state.
“I don’t want to elaborate much about the result. Now, we should all focus on how to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. We should all focus on flattening the COVID-19 curve,” Mr. Biren said.
He stressed that there is no need to discuss the majority and minority of the party’s strength.
“Titular king Leishemba Sanajaoba, fielded by BJP won the election with 28 votes, and Congress’ candidate received only 24 votes. This explains everything,” added Mr. Biren.
Later in the evening, CM N Biren Singh feted Leishemba Sanajaoba at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, Babupara.
The result came as a huge setback for Congress and former Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, who on June 17 approached the governor Najma Heptulla seeking a special session to floor a no-confidence motion after three BJP MLAs defected from the ruling party of the state.
The National People’s Party (NPP), one of the allies of the Bharatiya Janata Party, also withdrew its support along with a Trinamool Congress MLA and an independent from Jiribam.
Including the Deputy Chief Minister Y Joykumar Singh, the four MLAs of NPP, all cabinet ministers in the BJP-led coalition government, supported the Congress party. Earlier, the BJP-led coalition was on a sticky wicket after the rebellion of nine MLAs.
As the three BJP MLAs – Subhashchandra Singh, TT Haokip, and Samuel Jendai – resigned from the primary membership of the party and the post of legislators, they didn’t cast the Friday’s poll. Though, Y Joykumar Singh, N. Kayisii, L Jayantakumar Singh, and Letpao Haokip of the National People’s Party (NPP) exercise their franchises.
On June 19, the election was held in eight states for 19 Rajya Sabha seats. BJP, Congress, and YSRCP got hold of 8, 5, and 4 seats respectively, and NPP and MNF won one seat each.
