Biren Singh

Biren became the Chief Minister for a second successive term in 2022 when the BJP won an absolute majority by winning 32 seats in the 60-member House. Moreover, the Janata Dal (United), the NPF, the newly formed Kuki People’s Alliance (KPA) and two Independent MLAs extended their unconditional support to the saffron party. The JD(U) won six seats, NPF won five and the KPA won two seats.

More than 120 people have been killed in the ethnic violence that has overtaken Manipur. The state’s faultlines came alive once again in the first week of May after a tribal rally against the Meitei demand for Scheduled Tribe status triggered violence. Nearly 4,000 houses belonging to both communities — including that of Union minister R K Ranjan Singh — have been torched. An estimated 45,000 people have been displaced on both sides of the divide and are living in relief camps. The atmosphere of distrust is making it difficult for security forces to operate.

Biren Singh, the second time CM of the state, now stands accused of encouraging divisions between the Meiteis and Kukis, leading up to the current violence.

Singh, 62, took an unusual road to politics. He first rose to eminence as a footballer, with his skills at an exhibition match bringing him to the attention of the coach of the BSF Jalandhar football team. Recruited as a professional player, he spent the next five years – 1979 to 84 – shuttling between Jalandhar and New Delhi and touring the country. In 1991, he played in the finals of the Durand Cup. The passion for football extended to Singh’s personal life. He named the youngest of his three children after the Brazilian footballer Zikho, calling him Pele at home.

In 2002, Biren Singh fought his first elections as an Independent candidate and won. The then CM Okram Ibobi Singh took him under his wings and he formally joined Congress in 2007, won another election and became Minister for Irrigation and Flood, and Sports.

After Ibobi Singh dropped Biren from his Cabinet in 2012, their relations turned sour. In 2016, Singh threatened to leave the Congress, taking with him 20 MLAs. Ibobi skillfully averted this by delaying a reshuffle in his Cabinet, and then making Singh the vice-president and spokesperson of congress.

Singh was mollified, but not for long, and before the 2017 Assembly polls, he left the Congress and joined the BJP.