Manipur: BJP MLA urges tribal legislators to attend assembly session to solve issues unitedly

Imphal, Aug 8 (IANS) Manipur BJP MLA Rajkumar Imo Singh on Tuesday urged all MLAs, who have been demanding separate administrations for the tribals in the state, to attend the upcoming assembly session and discuss everything on the floor of the House and try to solve all issues together.

Responding to the demands from various circles, including the opposition Congress, the Manipur government last week convened the Assembly session from August 21.

The BJP MLA, who is also the son-in-law of Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, said that they (tribal legislators) should not fear for anything including attending the assembly session, as Central and state governments would provide the tightest of security measures for them.

“We all will ensure the protection of each other,” Singh said in a video message.

He said that those legislators from the political party who supported for separate administration (equivalent to separate state), and also withdrew support from the state BJP-led government, should ideally resign from the assembly and they should not be drawing salary from the state government/Assembly.

“These MLAs enjoy all the perks of the government and yet speak against the state of Manipur,” said Singh, who earlier on a number of occasions urged the Central government to resolve the Manipur crisis at the earliest.

Amidst the prevailing situation in the northeastern state, the Kuki People's Alliance (KPA) with two MLAs in the Manipur Assembly, on Sunday withdrew its support from the BJP-led state government.

Addressing a letter to Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uikey, KPA President Tongmang Haokip had said: “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.”

The BJP MLA Singh said that despite withdrawal of support by the KPA, there is no danger about the survival of the BJP-led government as it has more than sufficient number of supporting MLAs.

Meanwhile, 10 MLAs, including seven BJP legislators, since May 12 and many tribal organisations including Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) and Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) have been demanding separate administrations (equivalent to separate state) for the tribals.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Manipur Chief Minister N.Biren Singh, ruling BJP and various other organisations including the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an apex body of the Meitei community, have been strongly opposing the separate administrations demand.