Biren Singh to take oath as Manipur CM for a second term at 3 pm

Manipur oath ceremony: The oath ceremony comes more than 10 days after election results were declared.

Biren Singh will take oath as Manipur's chief minister for a second term on Monday at 3 pm. The oath ceremony comes after days of deliberation and over a week after the election results were declared for the northeastern state. The 61-year-old leader was chosen to be the BJP's pick for another term, union minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday. Kiren Rijiju and Bhupendra Yadav were other leaders who visited the state for a key party meet ahead of the announcement.

Nirmala Sitharaman presents a bouquet to BJP leader N. Biren Singh after his election as the leader of BJP Manipur Pradesh legislative party & Chief Minister of Manipur, (PTI)

Visuals showed the top BJP leaders congratulating Singh after he was "unanimously elected" to lead. "It's a good decision taken unanimously by everyone. It will ensure that Manipur will have a very good, stable and responsible government which will be built further because the Centre today under the leadership of PM Modi gives special attention to the northeast state. Therefore, this decision will go a long way in providing Manipur stability and good governance together," Sitharaman told reporters.

Last week, Biren Singh had travelled to Delhi twice and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah amid talks over the top post. On Saturday night, a meeting stretched late into night at Amit Shah's residence. Even though he had won his stronghold Heingang consitutency and had expressed confience about the BJP's return to power before the state elections, there were reports of complaints against Singh by colleagues during his tenure.

The BJP contested all 60 seats in Manipur this time and got 32. The state was critical for the party to to retain to keep expanding its footprint in the northeast.

The ruling party won four of five states in this round of state elections. While Uttar Pradesh will also see Yogi Adityanath taking oath on Friday, the party is yet to name the chief ministers for Goa and Uttarakhand.

On Sunday, AAP's Arvind Kejriwal took a swipe at the BJP that the party had already chosen its cabinet in Punjab while the BJP was still deliberating over chief ministers' posts.