PATNA: In a repeat of the December 2020 Arunachal Pradesh phenomenon, five of the six JD(U) MLAs in Manipur joined the ruling BJP on Friday, just a day before the Bihar’s ruling party’s national executive meeting in Patna on Saturday.
It has come as a major jolt to the JD(U) and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who has been nurturing national ambition for the 2024 general elections.
The five MLAs – K Joykisan Singh, Ngursanglur Sanate, Achab Uddin, Thangjam Arunkumar and L M Khaute — who were scheduled to arrive in Patna on Saturday to attend the party’s crucial meeting, on Friday met the speaker of Manipur Vidhan Sabha and expressed their desire to join the ruling BJP as per the provisions under the 10th schedule of the constitution. The speaker approved their merger with the ruling BJP. The Manipur assembly secretariat later issued a notification in this regard. 
A copy of the Manipur Vidhan Sabha notification on Friday.
Now, only one JD(U) MLA, Muhammad Abdul Nasir, who won the assembly pols from Lilong seat, remains with the party in the state.
“The political development in Manipur shows the morality of the BJP,” JD(U) national general secretary and party’s Northeast in-charge Afaque Ahamd Khan told TOI on Friday.
In December 2020, six of the seven JD(U) MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh had joined the BJP. The remaining lone JD(U) MLA in Arunachal Pradesh, Techi Kaso, joined the ruling BJP on August 24 this year. JD(U)’s lone MLA in Nagaland too had left the party a few years back.
With defection of these five MLAs, now JD(U) has only one legislator in the entire Northeast region.
