BJP’s northeast in-charge Sambit Patra arrived in Manipur on Monday on a two-day visit, amid calls from NDA legislators for a “popular government” in the strife-torn state.
He arrived in Imphal on Monday morning and immediately flew to Churachandpur, a Kuki-Zo majority town and one of the worst-affected regions since the ethnic violence erupted on May 3 last year. He met BJP MLA Vungzagin Valte, who had survived a mob attack in Imphal in May 2023 and only recently returned home following treatment in Delhi. He also met another local MLA, LM Khaute, and held separate meetings with the chairmen of the Zomi Council and the Kuki-Zo Council.
A memorandum was submitted to him by the Zomi Students’ Federation during his visit.
After his return to Imphal, the BJP leader met former chief minister N. Biren Singh and Assembly Speaker Thokchom Satyabrata Singh, both key players in the current political impasse. Later, he interacted with ruling party MLAs at a city hotel and, accompanied by state BJP president A. Sharda Devi, called on governor Ajay Kumar
Bhalla around 8pm at Raj Bhavan.
Though the BJP leader remained tight-lipped about the objective of his visit, a party MLA, Sapam Kunjakeswor Singh, said they discussed the reopening of national highways and improvement of the law-and-order situation. “There was no discussion on forming a government,” he said. Three MLAs from the NDA ally NPF also met the BJP leader.
Sources said the visit assumes significance as it comes shortly after 21 MLAs from the NDA bloc wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah on April 29, appealing for the restoration of a “popular government” in Manipur. They described it as the only viable route to peace and warned of further unrest as several civil society organisations had openly opposed the imposition of President’s rule.
The BJP-led government had collapsed after Singh resigned on February 9, and party MLAs failed to agree on a successor. The Centre imposed President’s rule on February 13.
Coinciding with the BJP leader’s visit was the two-year anniversary of the ethnic conflict, observed separately by Meitei and Kuki-Zo organisations on May 3. In Imphal, the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (Cocomi), a prominent Meitei civil society body, held a large public convention where 17 resolutions were adopted.
The first resolution declared that the Government of India must take full responsibility for the current situation and urgently devise a roadmap to restore peace. Others demanded correction of what the organisers called the government’s “misleading narrative” framing the crisis as merely ethnic, and called for safe passage along national highways.
The ongoing conflict has claimed at least 260 lives and displaced over 60,000 people. Kuki-Zo-dominated areas remain inaccessible to Meiteis, and Meitei areas are out of bounds for the Kuki-Zos.
The Assembly Speaker had earlier pushed for Singh’s removal, arguing that his leadership had failed to stem the violence.
The BJP leader, when asked about the purpose of his Churachandpur visit, described it as “unofficial”. But the timing and itinerary indicated a political stock-taking mission at a moment of growing pressure on the Centre to act decisively.
