Amid a resurgence of ethnic violence in Manipur, the National People’s Party on Sunday withdrew support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government led by Chief Minister N Biren Singh.
The National People’s Party, which is headed by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, has seven MLAs in the 60-member Manipur Assembly.
The party on Sunday expressed its “deep concern” about the law and order situation in Manipur.
“In the last few days, we have seen the situation further deteriorate where many more innocent lives have been lost and people in the state are going through immense suffering,” Sangma said in a letter to BJP chief JP Nadda.
Sangma said his party believed that the Manipur government under Biren Singh had “completely failed to resolve the crisis and restore normalcy”.
He said in the letter: “Keeping the current situation in mind, the National People’s Party has decided to withdraw its support to the Biren Singh-led government in the state of Manipur, with immediate effect.”
There has been an uptick in violence in Manipur in the past ten days, with with at least 17 persons having been killed since November 7. At least 255 persons have died and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the clashes broke out between the Meiteis and Kuki-Zo-Hmars in May 2023.
On November 11, suspected Kuki militants set some shops on fire in the Jakuradhor Karong area of the Jiribam district. Three women and three children, including an infant, went missing after the violence.
On Friday evening, the bodies of a woman and two children, believed to be among the six persons missing, were found floating on the Barak river. The body of another woman was found floating on the river in Assam’s Cachar district on Sunday morning.
The districts of Jiribam and Cachar share an inter-state border.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge alleged on Sunday that the BJP wanted Manipur to burn because it served its “hateful divisive politics”.
He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed the state, and that its residents would not forgive him even if he were to visit the region in the future.
Kharge told Modi that under the BJP-led governments at the Centre and the state, Manipur was neither united nor secure. “Na Manipur ek hai, na Manipur safe hai [Manipur is not one, and nor is it safe],” the Congress chief said, alluding to a BJP campaign slogan.