Footballer-turned-journo to be Manipur’s new CM

Assam’s political story is being replayed in neighbouring Manipur. The political journey of Bharatiya Janata Party’s chief ministerial nominee in Manipur, Nongthombam Biren Singh, is similar to Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Both have been the key strategist for the Congress party in their respective states, and helped the party twice in returning to power. But they were finally compelled to leave the party and join the BJP due to differences with the respective chief ministers.

A national-level footballer-turned-journalist, Mr Singh was a key member of the Congress when he decided to join BJP in October 2016. He started his political career with the regional Democratic Revolutionary People’s Party in 2002. He was elected to the Manipur Assembly from Heingang constituency.

The party later merged with Congress before the 2004 Assembly elections. In 2003, he was appointed minister of state for vigilance. Later, he was made minister of irrigation and flood control, and youth affairs and sports.

He retained his Assembly seat in both the 2007 and 2012 state elections. However, his relationship with the then chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh strained after he was dropped from the Cabinet in 2012. He was the vice-president of the Manipur Congress unit then.

Mr Singh was one of Manipur’s first footballers to play outside India. His highpoint as a left back while playing for the Border Security Force team was when they won the Durand Cup in 1981. He also faced a lot of onslaught of insurgent groups as editor of Naharolgi Thoudang, a vernacular daily, which grew from a weekly to daily in his leadership.

The political observers equating the situation in Manipur with Assam says that the BJP relied on Mr Sarma to come to power in Assam in 2016. It is now banking on Mr Singh to end the Congress’s 15-year rule.