“We have absolute numbers…”: Manipur Minister Sapam Ranjan on KPA support withdrawal from state govt 

Imphal (Manipur) [India], August 7 (ANI): Manipur Health Minister Sapam Ranjan on Monday said that the withdrawal of Kuki People’s Alliance (KPA) support from the state government will not affect the BJP-led government in the state since it has absolute numbers.

While speaking to ANI, Sapam Ranjan said, “We have been told that they have withdrawn the support. I think KPA has two MLAs in the Assembly. As far as the government is concerned. I don’t think it will affect the government in any way since we have the absolute numbers.”

Meanwhile, Kuki People’s Alliance (KPA) president Tongmang Haokip slammed the BJP government in Manipur and said that the current government is anti-Kuki. 

“The situation now has changed because the present government is anti-Kuki people. Even the CM himself has openly denounced the Kukis as a terrorist group, narco-terrorists, outsiders, foreigners, poppy cultivators, drug smugglers, and what not. In this situation, we have no way out other than withdrawing our support from the present government,” he said. 

Earlier, the Kuki People’s Alliance on Sunday withdrew its support to the Manipur CM Biren Singh’s government.

Kuki People’s Alliance president Tongmang Haokip on Sunday wrote a letter to Manipur governor Anusuiya Uikey to inform her about the party withdrawing its support to the incumbent government.

“After careful consideration of the current conflagration, the continued support for the incumbent government of Manipur led by Chief Minister N Biren Singh is no longer fructuous. Accordingly, the support of the KPA to the Government of Manipur is hereby withdrawn and can be considered null and void,” the letter read.

The withdrawal of support by the Kuki People’s Alliance will not bring about much change in the power dynamics of the state government as they had been a minor ally. 

The Kuki People’s Alliance (KPA) had two MLAs lending support to the BJP government led by Biren Singh.

While the BJP has 37 MLAs in the current government, it has the support of five MLAs from the Naga People’s Front (NPF), seven MLAs from the National People’s Party (NPP) along with the backing of three independent legislators.

The opposition now consists of a total of eight MLAs, which include the Congress which has five MLAs, the JD(U) which has one MLA and two from the KPA. Following the last state assembly elections, five JD(U) MLAs joined hands with the BJP.

Manipur has been in the throes of ethnic violence for a month, in the wake of a directive of the high court asking the state government to consider including the Meitei community in the list of Scheduled Tribes (STs).