Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh has defeated Congress candidate P Sharatchandra in Heingang after receiving 24,814 votes while the latter managed to secure only 6,543 votes after seven rounds of counting. The result was somehow expected as Manipur, like other states in the northeast, tends to vote for the party in power at the federal level.
ALSO READ: Manipur Result LIVE 2022
Singh, who is a former footballer, was recruited by the Border Security Force (BSF), where he represented the force in local games. He left the BSF to pursue a career in journalism. Despite having no official background or experience, he founded the Naharolgi Thoudang vernacular newspaper in 1992 and served as its editor until 2001.
He began his political career in 2002 by joining the Democratic Revolutionary Peoples Party and won the assembly elections from Heingang assembly constituency. But later he joined the Indian National Congress.
In the same year in March, Singh introduced a Private Members Resolution calling on the House to vote unanimously to affirm that the people of Manipur, regardless of caste or tribe, will live together without prejudice in the future, forgetting all past mistakes and misdeeds.
Just a year later, in 2003, he became the Minister of State for Vigilance in the Manipur state government. He also served as Chairman of the Manipur Pollution Control Board and was assigned the responsibility of Forest and Environment Minister (Ind. Charge).
Later in 2007, Singh ran for the re-election to the Assembly as a Congress member. He was then appointed to the state government as Minister of Irrigation and Flood Control, Youth Affairs and Sports and Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution.
He was re-elected in 2012 to the Assembly for the third time in a row.
But Singh resigned from the Manipur Legislative Assembly and the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee in October 2016, following a revolt against Manipur’s then chief minister Okram lbobi Singh.
Following his resignation, Singh joined the BJP in October 2016 and became the party’s Manipur Pradesh spokesperson, as well as Co-Convener of the Election Management Committee.
In 2017, for the fourth time in a row, he was elected to the Manipur Legislative Assembly from Heingang.
Singh was elected as the leader of the BJP Legislatures Party in Manipur in March 2017 and after presenting a majority of MLAs to the Governor, he was sworn in as Chief Minister of Manipur in March 2017.
However, following the latest results of the 2022 election, celebrations broke out at the residence of Singh, who recently stated that people of his state and he himself wanted the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) to be lifted, but further said it should be done with the consent of the Centre.
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