Yumnam Khemchand Singh was elected as the head of the BJP’s legislative party in Manipur on Tuesday, clearing the way for the party to form a new government a year after President’s Rule was imposed amid large-scale communal violence between the Meiti and Kuki Jo people.
Yumnam Khemchand Singh is a senior BJP leader who was the Speaker and Minister of the Manipur Legislative Assembly. (Photo: FB/Y Khemchand Singh)Yumnam Khemchand is a long-time politician and has served in top positions before. He was a minister in N Biren Singh’s BJP government before the advent of central rule.
He was elected to the Manipur Legislative Assembly from Sinjamei constituency in 2017 and 2022. He was the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in his first term as an MLA till 2022.
After winning in 2022, he became a cabinet minister in the second Biren Singh ministry. He is the Municipal Administration and Housing Development (MAHUD); Rural Development and Panchayati Raj; and education.
He served till February 2025, when President’s Rule was declared in Manipur.
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Manipur is about to get a new BJP governmentYumnam Khemchand Singh was elected as the leader of the BJP’s legislative party at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday evening.
The decision came days before the completion of a year of President’s rule in the northeastern state.
Later, there will be a meeting of BJP’s NDA partners in the state, news agency ANI reported.
President’s Rule was imposed in Manipur on February 13 last year and later extended by Parliament for another six months in August. Although there was no elected government, the assembly was not dissolved.
This means the new government could remain in place until 2027, when the term of the current House expires.
In the 60-seat Manipur Assembly, the BJP has a strong majority with 37 seats and its main partner National People’s Party (NPP) with seven seats.
Former chief minister N Biren Singh on Sunday said that NDA partners from the state have been called to Delhi for a meeting. “Let’s hope for a positive response,” Biren Singh told reporters.
Biren Singh resigned as chief minister after months of violence in the state following ethnic tensions between the Kuki Jo and Meitei ethnic groups.
The Union Home Ministry gave another extension to the Commission of Inquiry probing the violence in December 2025, ordering it to submit the report “as soon as possible, but not later than May 20, 2026”.
Violence broke out in Manipur on May 3, 2023, with clashes that soon engulfed large parts of the state.
