Guwahati: Three BJP MLAs resigned from the party as well as the Assembly, the BJP led coalition Government in Manipur has been reduced to a minority on Wednesday, another six MLAs also withdrawn their support to the Government.

The Manipur Government headed by N. Biren Singh’s Government down to 23 to 18 from BJP, Four members from Naga People’s Front (NPF) and one from Lok Janshakti Party (LJP). NPP’s Y Joykumar Singh was the Deputy Chief Minister. Opposition Congress has 20 MLAs. If the six non-BJP MLAs ditching BJP – four from Conrad Sangma’s National People’s Party (NPP), one from Trinamool Congress and an independent MLA – extend their support to Congress, it will take the grand old party’s tally to 26.

The 60-member Manipur House has an effective strength of 59 after (now former) Minister Shyam kumar Singh was disqualified in March following an order issued by the Supreme Court. Seven other Congress MLAs, who had sided with the BJP, are likely to be disqualified soon as the Manipur High Court last week ordered Speaker Yumnam Khemchand to “restraint” their entry into the Assembly. So, their disqualification is only a matter of time. Once they are disqualified, the strength of the Assembly will go further down to 52. So, 27 MLAs are all that a formation of parties will need to be in power.

Following the developments, the Congress claimed they had 26 MLAs (this includes the six non-BJP MLAs who withdrew their support to the saffron party). The Congress was optimistic that the lone LJP MLA would also join its fold by withdrawing his support to the BJP. The Congress claimed that “several” BJP MLAs were ready to desert the party. The party said it was gearing up to visit the Raj Bhavan and stake claim to form the government. In the 2017 state elections, Congress had grabbed 28 seats as against the BJP’s 21 but still the saffron party managed to form the government with support from other parties.