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G Vinayak in Guwahati
Top Bharatiya Janata Party and Samata leaders in Manipur are rushing to Delhi on Thursday to sort out the matter of installing a new government in the state after the three-month old Radha Binod Koijam ministry was defeated on the floor of the House on Monday.
Although R K Dorendra Singh, a former chief minister was elected as the leader of the 41-member newly-formed Progressive Democratic Alliance on Tuesday, he refrained from staking the claim with Governor Ved Marwah to form the next government following a strict warning from BJP president Jana Krishnamurthy.
In a faxed message, Krishnamurthy told Dorendra Singh: "I am given to understand that you are trying to form a ministry under your chief ministership. Kindly note that no BJP MLA should approach the governor to form the government and no MLA of ours should join any ministry."
In Delhi, Dorendra and Koijam are likely to sit down with the Central BJP and Samata leaders to evolve a compromise formula.
One of the solutions that is being thought about is to have a third person, other than Koijam and Dorendra, as the chief minister, who would in turn be supported by both the Samata and the BJP.
In case this does not work out, another possibility is being discussed. The Centre, especially the Union home ministry, is in favour of imposing a brief spell of President's rule in the state for two reasons. One, to buy time to thrash out the mechanics of the next government and two to implement its proposal for extending the nearly four-year old Naga ceasefire to three other states in the northeast -- Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.
A spell of President's rule will enable the Centre to take its own decision in this regard since New Delhi is aware that no elected government in Manipur will ever agree to the extension of ceasefire to Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur.
The popular anger in Manipur over the issue emanates from the fear that Manipur may have to ultimately give up some of its areas to the Nagas under the "greater Nagaland" concept, propounded by the Naga insurgent groups such as the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, led by Issac Chsi Swu and Th. Muivah.
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