In Manipur, CM N Biren Singh expands cabinet; adds 6 more ministers

Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh on Saturday expanded his cabinet by inducting six more ministers and thereby filling up all 12 ministerial berths.

The newly inducted ministers who took oath at the Raj Bhawan in Imphal are Letpao Haokip, Dr Sapam Rajan, Leishengthem Susindro, Heikham Dingo, Thounaojam Basanta and Khasim Vashum.

Manipur governor La Ganesan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers at the Banquet Hall of Raj Bhawan in Imphal around 11am.

The swearing-in ceremony was held a day after the arrival of Dr Sambit Patra who is the BJP’s state in charge for Manipur.

Dr Ranjan, Susindro, Dingo are BJP MLAs from Khurai, Konthoujam and Sekmai assembly constituencies while Basanta is a first-time BJP MLA from the Nambol seat in Bishnupur district.

Letpao, who was elected for the second time from the Tengnoupal seat on a BJP ticket, was a former water resources minister in the previous government when he was elected for the first time on a National People’s Party ticket in the 2017 polls.

When asked about the portfolios allocated to the newly inducted ministers, chief minister N Biren Singh who was present at the swearing in ceremony, said, “It will be distributed within a day or two.” On the delay in the ministry expansion, he clarified that it was because of the discussions that took time.

Later sharing photographs of the swearing-in ceremony in a tweet, N Biren Singh wrote, “Congratulations to the newly inducted six Council of Ministers, Shri L. Sushindro, Sh Th Basanta, Dr. S Ranjan Singh, Sh H. Dingo, Sh Letpao Haokip and Sh Khasim Vashum.”

Manipur assembly speaker Th Satyabrata, the council of ministers, MLAs, BJP’s Manipur in charge Sambit Patra, BJP Manipur president A Sharda Devi, Chief Secretary Dr Rajesh Kumar, DGP Manipur P Doungel, administrative officials and political leaders were present at the swearing-in ceremony.

Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh was sworn in for the second term on March 21 along with five other MLAs — four from BJP, one from NPF, a day after he was unanimously elected as the BJP state legislature party leader. The five MLAs are Th Biswajit, Y Khemchand, Govindas K, Nemcha Kipgen, all BJP MLAs and Awangbow Newmai of NPF.

In the recently concluded assembly elections, BJP got an absolute majority by winning 32 of the 60 seats in the Manipur assembly, while the National People’s Party, an ally of the previous government came second by securing seven seats. Congress and NPF got five seats each. The newly formed Kuki People’s Alliance bagged 2 while three independent members won three seats.