Imphal: Incumbent Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh today ruled out the BJP’s partnership with the National People’s Party (NPP) in the formation of the next government in Manipur.
Biren Singh said that even if the party (BJP) secured absolute majority by winning in more than 30 seats, the party will open to alliances with other like-minded parties. “We are confident of winning 30 plus seats and forming a government of our own. But, we will be open to alliances with other parties who are maintaining good relationships with us,” he said. “BJP means transparency, no corruption,” he also said and added that the party will go together with those parties which commit to transparency in governance, reduction in corruption and to work at the grassroots with the people.
The chief minister was talking to reporters at Imphal East DC office complex where he came to collect the certificate of election to the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly today.
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Biren Singh retained the Heingang seat for the fifth time. He defeated his only rival Congress candidate P Sharatchandra by a huge margin of 18,271 votes. The chief minister secured 24,814 votes (78.54% of the total 31,596 total votes polled in the constituency while Congress got 6,543 votes (20.71 %), as per the official results of the ECI.
To another query, the incumbent chief minister said that who will be the next chief minister of the state will be decided by the national leaders of the party. He claimed that as a tradition, BJP does not declare chief ministerial candidates in any of the Assembly elections. “This time, too, no one was projected as chief ministerial candidates in all the five states where the elections to the state Assembly were held simultaneously”, he added. After analysis of the results of the elections, Central leaders of the party will take a decision on who will be the chief minister, he added. “The Central leaders of the BJP take a democratic decision regarding the selection of the leader who will be the next chief minister of the state”, he further added.