Imphal, Dec. 31: Nine more ministers today joined chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh?s camp to prevent ?disloyal? ruling members from crossing over to the Opposition alliance. After spending more than a week in a Calcutta hotel, the nine ministers arrived here today and were immediately whisked away to the chief minister?s official residence where he had set up camp.
Speaker T.N. Haokip, who was also away for the same period, came back to Imphal by the same flight from Calcutta along with the ministers. The chief minister had not only sent a team to pick up his flock, but also made sure that they did not stray.
While the Opposition Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA) alleged that Ibobi Singh has set up the camp to keep the ministers under ?house arrest? so that the Secular Progressive Front (SPF) ministry could continue to cling to power, the chief minister said the ministers decided to stay together after several of them were threatened.
Ibobi Singh charged the Opposition with hiring criminals to force several ministers to leave the SPF government and join the Opposition in a bid to dislodge his government.
Sources said the chief minister?s office complex has been heavily fortified and most of the ministers are not attending office since the camp was set up.
DPA leader and former chief minister R.K. Dorendro Singh has criticised Ibobi Singh for keeping the ministers at his residence. He said using the cabinet room as the minister?s bedroom with mattresses strewn all around was defiling the sanctity of the place. A government, which cannot function properly, should step down gracefully, he added.
The DPA, headed by the BJP, has been pulling out all stops to oust the Ibobi Singh ministry for the past few months. The SPF accused the BJP of using both money and muscle power to dethrone the government.
In another development, the Manipur BJP Yuva Morcha today faxed a memorandum to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, seeking the Centre?s intervention into what it termed as a crisis in Manipur. In the memorandum, the morcha claimed the administrative machinery had broken down with all the ministers staying at the camp and the government employees on a ceasework for more than a month.