A senior leader informed that on January 16, Congress vice-president Kh. Ratankumar Singh resigned from the party post ahead of the assembly election.
According to sources, based on the resignation letter Singh moved out of the post but did not resign from the primary membership of the party.
Previously, another vice-president state unit, Chaltonlien Amo, switched over to the ruling BJP on January 9. Besides, out of the 28 leaders of the party who were elected to the 60-member assembly in the last election, 16 have left the party.
About Kh. Ratankumar Singh:
Kh. Ratankumar Singh, a former education minister, unsuccessfully contested the assembly election in 2017 from the Mayang Imphal constituency.
Manipur Assembly Elections:
Assembly elections will be held in Manipur from 27 February to 3 March 2022 in two phases, to elect 60 members of the Manipur Legislative Assembly. The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on March 10, 2022.
Downfall of Congress:
Led by state Congress stalwart and 3-time chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, the party had ended up in 2017 Assembly polls as a single largest party. But it was outsmarted by the BJP, which led by N Biren, managed to cobble up the majority number and form the government by forming alliances with smaller parties.
Since then, the Congress has been on a downward slide, racked by periodic rounds of defections. In fact, two senior Congress legislators, Chaltonlien Amo and Kakching Y Surchandra, have switched over to the BJP just this week. In August 2021, even the then Manipur Congress president, Govinddas Konthoujam, defected to the saffron party.
The Congress has been a major player in Manipur politics since 1950s even before it gained full-fledged statehood. It had been in power multiple times with R K Keishing serving as the CM for three terms, from 1980 to 1988 and, subsequently, from 1994 to 1997. From 2002 to 2017, the Congress ruled Manipur with Ibobi Singh as the CM.
Political experts say the waves of MLAs’ defections from the Congress to the BJP, who also rules the Centre, is typical of the North-east politics, with the party ruling the Centre calling the shots in states across the region.
