Yumnam Khemchand Singh takes oath as Manipur CM

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yumnam Khemchand Singh on Wednesday took oath as the chief minister of Manipur, ending the President’s Rule.

BJP’s Nemcha Kipgen, who belongs to the Kuki community, and Naga People’s Front MLA Losii Dikho, from the Naga community, were sworn in as the deputy chief ministers.

Kipgen became the first woman deputy chief minister of the state.

Earlier in the day, Khemchand Singh met Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla and staked a claim to form a new government in the state. This came a day after the Singjamei MLA was elected as the leader of BJP’s legislative party.

Manipur had been under President’s Rule since February 2025, when BJP leader N Biren Singh resigned as the chief minister.

The six-month extension to the President’s Rule, approved by Parliament in August, was to end this month.

Khemchand Singh was the Assembly speaker between 2017 and 2022 and a state minister in the Biren Singh government.

He was elected as the legislative party leader a day after MLAs of the BJP and its allies were called to Delhi for a meeting about government formation in the state. MLAs from the Meitei and the Kuki communities had been called, The Hindu had quoted unidentified legislators as saying.

At least 260 persons have been killed and more than 59,000 persons displaced since ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo-Hmar communities...

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