Yumnam Khemchand to Be Manipur’s Next Chief Minister: Black-Belt BJP MLA Who Asked Biren Singh to Quit
New Delhi: Sixty-two-year-old Meitei BJP legislator Yumnam Khemchand Singh is set to become the next Chief Minister of Manipur at a time when the state continues to grapple with deep political and ethnic turmoil. Known for his blunt and outspoken style, Khemchand has long been one of the most forthright voices within the party.
During a meeting in 2024, when Manipur was engulfed in violence, Khemchand openly asked then Chief Minister N. Biren Singh to resign, citing the government’s failure to restore peace and rising public anger. According to a BJP leader present at the meeting, Khemchand said that all party MLAs were ready to resign along with Biren Singh. “The Chief Minister listened to him but said very little,” the leader told The Print.
In the months that followed, Khemchand—considered close to the RSS—emerged as one of the former chief minister’s most vocal critics.
In June 2024, amid continuing ethnic clashes, more than two dozen armed men reportedly arrived in jeeps outside Khemchand’s residence in Imphal. CCTV footage showed them advancing toward the gate before security personnel intervened and police were alerted, forcing the group to retreat. Two BJP leaders and a security official confirmed the incident to The Print on condition of anonymity.
Khemchand was also among the BJP legislators repeatedly summoned to Delhi by the central leadership to brief them on the ground situation in Manipur. He warned that growing resentment against Biren Singh could hurt the party electorally. That assessment proved accurate when the BJP lost both Lok Sabha seats in Manipur in the 2024 general elections.
Just days before Biren Singh resigned as chief minister on 9 February 2025, Khemchand was again in Delhi. He informed the central leadership that some BJP MLAs might support a Congress-backed no-confidence motion, potentially bringing down the government. This information is said to have played a key role in the party leadership asking Biren Singh to step down.
Ironically, it was Biren Singh himself who on Tuesday proposed Khemchand’s name as the BJP legislature party leader.
Not Always a Biren Critic
Khemchand was not always opposed to Biren Singh. A two-time MLA from the Singjamei Assembly constituency in inner Imphal, he served as Speaker of the Manipur Assembly during Biren Singh’s first term from 2017 to 2022.
“At that time, he was loyal to Biren. He was made Speaker in his very first term as an MLA,” said another BJP legislator, requesting anonymity.
After the BJP returned to power in 2022, Khemchand continued to enjoy the party’s confidence. He was inducted into the cabinet and handled key portfolios including Municipal Administration and Housing Development, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, and Education.
In December 2025, Khemchand posted a photograph on X announcing that at the age of 62 he had earned a 5th Dan black belt from the Global Traditional Taekwondo Federation in Seoul.
Educated up to Class 10, Khemchand entered politics in the early 2000s but contested his first election only in 2017.
First Meitei MLA to Visit Kuki Relief Camps
After the outbreak of violence, Manipur became sharply divided along ethnic lines, with Meiteis largely confined to the valley and the Kuki-Zo community to the hill districts. The divide was so deep that people from the two communities avoided entering each other’s areas.
Against this backdrop, Khemchand became the first Meitei MLA to visit relief camps housing internally displaced Kuki-Zo people in the hill district of Ukhrul last December—more than two and a half years after ethnic violence began.
However, the visit drew strong criticism from Kuki-Zo civil society organisations, which termed it “unauthorised” and “politically motivated.” They also alleged that the visit took place at a time when most camp residents were not present.
