Manipur, April 3 -- Since he had been leading a dissident camp against Chief minister O Ibobi Singh and buckling under the pressure, a cabinet reshuffle was done and the state president was changed while N Biren became all powerful as a vice president. Yet, unable to match the wily O Ibobi Singh within the Congress fold he left the party in October 2016 a few months before the state assembly elections. Then, a barrage of corruption scams fell out of the cupboard just before the elections.

BJP successfully banked on the corruption charges and the anti-incumbency factor of O Ibobi's 15 years rule. But it came out the second single largest party formation with 21 MLAs after the Congress, although it managed to cobble together a coalition of...