BJP, NPP continue negotiations to resolve Manipur crisis; Conrad Sangma, Himanta Biswa Sarma visit Imphal

Imphal: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and National People’s Party (NPP) on Tuesday continued negotiations to resolve the political instability in Manipur. Meghalaya Chief Minister, NPP president Conrad Sangma and Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited Imphal for the second time in a bid to stop the Congress from forming a Secular Progressive Front government. The leaders of both the parties held several rounds of meetings with MLAs and party officials, both together and separately. However, the outcome of the talks is not known yet. [caption id=“attachment_8495341” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  File image of Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh. PTI[/caption] As concrete solutions could not be resolved at this level, all the NPP MLAs headed by Yumnam Joykumar Singh, L Jayantakumar Singh, Letpao Haokip and N Kayisii left for Delhi on a chartered flight with Sarma and Sangma. Before leaving the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport, Sarma told media persons, “They have certain issues and that is why they left for Delhi to continue the next round of discussion. This discussion will also be attended by my senior colleagues.” He said, “Today, we had a very productive discussion with NPP and with some other friends who are supporting us from the very beginning. I think that step by step we will be able to resolve the issues soon.” “Some differences of opinion keep on coming up. So, we want to finally resolve the issues this time so that there is no further conflict and we can concentrate on Manipur’s development,” he further said. Earlier, three BJP MLAs resigned and joined Congress while four NPP MLAs, an independent MLA and a Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA withdrew support to the N Biren Singh-led government.