Former Manipur minister L. Jayantakumar Singh, along with eight others, joined the Opposition Congress in Imphal on Thursday.

A former Congressman, Jayantakumar was with the National People’s Party (NPP), headed by Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma.

He was minister in both the Okram Ibobi singh-led Congress government and the incumbent N. Biren Singh-led BJP government. The NPP is an ally of the ruling BJP.

Jayantakumar had lost the 2022 Assembly polls.

K. Devabrata Singh, Manipur PCC working president, told The Telegraph that it was a good day for the party as it continued to expand with more and more people, including sitting MLAs, showing interest in joining the Congress.

“It is a homecoming for Jayantakumar. He had resigned from the NPP last year over the handling of the ongoing conflict by the government of which the NPP is a part. He had not joined any party but was in touch with the Congress leadership to return to the party,” Singh said.

Along with Jayantakumar, O. Romen Singh, the NPP candidate from Singjamei constituency in the 2022 polls, also joined the Congress.

Four other NPP members, two social workers and a former zilla parishad member also joined the Congress at a programme held at the Rajiv Bhavan in Imphal on Thursday afternoon.

The joining comes two days after the Congress’s “shock” defeat in Haryana. “It is a
good sign. People have faith in the Congress,” Devabrata Singh said.

The NPP seemed to be in a spot of bother with “differences” coming to the fore between the party MLAs and the state leadership over the issue of supporting the BJP-led state government.

On Wednesday, all seven NPP MLAs skipped a state unit meeting to discuss the postponement of the October 5 national executive in Delhi where a key topic of discussion would have been whether to support the state government.