BJP Leaders Should Ignite Kuki-Meitei Unity First at Thambal Sanglen

In the shadow of a divided party and state, Senior BJP leaders B.L. Santosh, General Secretary (Organisation), and Dr. Sambit Patra, National Spokesperson and North East In-Charge, have arrived with more than a political mandate—they carry the torch of possibility. 

Their three-day visit is a sacred opportunity to ignite Kuki-Meitei unity at Thambal Sanglen, the very heart of the BJP in Imphal—beyond the dream for a popular government. 

By convening Kuki and Meitei party leaders, MLAs, and mandal office bearers under one roof, they can transform a historic assembly hall into a crucible of reconciliation. This is not symbolism—it is the first real step toward healing. When party families sit together, shake hands, and speak with one voice, the people will follow. Unity begins within the party, and Thambal Sanglen must be where it begins.

“Peace has returned.” The phrase drifts through Manipur like incense in a funeral hall—comforting to some, suffocating to others. Two-and-a-half years after the Manipur violence which started on May 3, 2023, the state is not healing; it is calcifying into two hostile republics. Imphal Valley, the Meitei heartland, stares across buffer zones and armed checkpoints at the Kuki Areas, where Churachandpur sits just 60 kilometers away—a distance most Indians cover twice daily without a second thought. 

National Highway 2 is open, patrolled, fueled, and lit. It takes one hour in a Car. Yet, as November 2025 unfolds, a procession of Union Ministers and BJP heavyweights arrives in Imphal, each treating that 60-km stretch as if it were the Line of Control. Their actions—from Sambit Patra's previous journeys to last week’s ministerial detours—do not stitch the wound. They salt it.

Also Read: Historical Records Debunk Narratives That Kukis Were Not Under Maharajas of Manipur

Let us walk through this chronology of capitulation, not as bullet points but as a slow-motion betrayal of the very peace they claim to restore.It begins today, November 12, 2025, with BJP National General Secretary (Organisation) BL Santosh and Dr Sambit Patra, National Spokesperson and North East In-Charge, stepping off a flight in Imphal for a three-day visit that could have been the turning point. Their mandate is weighty: consult with party MLAs, office bearers, and key stakeholders to strengthen coordination, review the ground reality, and—most crucially—lay the groundwork for forming a popular government to end President’s Rule, which has governed Manipur since February 2025 amid the ethnic deadlock.

This follows a high-stakes Delhi meeting last month where State BJP MLAs handed BL Santosh and Sambit Patra a memorandum pleading for elected rule. Former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh yesterday called this tour “political in purpose,” hinting that consensus exists among BJP and allies to move forward—provided the party can hold itself together.This is not just another fact-finding mission. It is the BJP’s mirror moment. 

The party that rules the Centre and claims Manipur as its own now stares at a fractured family. If it cannot bring its own members across the ethnic divide, how can it ask ordinary citizens to do the same? Thambal Sanglen, the party’s headquarters in Imphal must become the stage for a joint gathering of Meitei valley leaders and Kuki BJP MLAs and leaders from Churachandpur and Kangpokpi. 

Escort those Kuki MLAs who boycotted the Assembly in 2023. Bring the mandal office bearers, the Yuva Morcha, and the Mahila Morcha leaders. Let BL Santosh chair the debate on government formation. Let Sambit Patra, as North East In-Charge, moderate the press conference. One table. One flag. One photograph that says: we are still one party.

This is the moment to request—no, demand—that BL Santosh and Sambit Patra call those Kuki BJP MLAs and mandal office bearers from Churachandpur and Kangpokpi to Thambal Sanglen. It will not just be symbolic. It will start the process of peace and unity. 

Sambit Patra, with his Northeast portfolio, should have done this earlier—perhaps during his previous tours. Nevertheless, it is time now. Pre-2023, Thambal Sanglen was alive with integrated events. Now, under President’s Rule and with central forces in abundance, there is no excuse. If security cannot guarantee a 60-km convoy for party workers, then the BJP has failed its own test.

Citizens will laugh bitterly: how can a Kuki mother send her child to a valley school when the ruling party’s own leaders won’t cross for a meeting?And if BL Santosh and Sambit Patra choose the easier path—valley meetings in Imphal, separate visits to Churachandpur or Kangpokpi for the hill leaders—then the conclusion is brutal: things are not normal still. 

Parallel party events would mirror the ministerial silos that follow in this timeline. A “popular government” formed on fractured party lines is not governance. It is partition with a new flag.Rewind to November 3, 2025, when Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar arrived in Imphal for a three-day review that promised oversight but delivered only optics. 

Day one was spent in the Old Secretariat, poring over 10% Gross Budgetary Support, health, education, transport, power, tourism, rural development—everything, it seemed, except the courage to cross the divide. He called on Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla at Raj Bhavan, murmuring about “administrative matters” in the safety of the valley’s power center.

Day two, November 4, brought no push into the hills. Instead, Kumar took a helicopter to Noney district in Tamenglong, about 100 kilometers northeast—a Naga-dominated area with milder tensions. He inspected stalls showcasing government schemes at the DC Office Complex in Longmai, posed with Self-Help Groups, and soaked in the applause. A chopper ride keeps you above the highway, above the ethnic checkpoints, above the hard questions.

Day three, November 5, was the final act of surrender. With his flight to Delhi looming, Kumar turned to Churachandpur—but only through a video conference from the air-conditioned conference room of Hotel Classic Grande, a luxury hotel better known for destination weddings than district governance. 

From this three-star bunker, he reviewed 15,000 displaced persons, the medical college’s missing super-specialties, PM SHRI Schools, agriculture, handloom, and transport. Deputy Commissioner Dharun Kumar Singh appeared on screen with his PowerPoint: essentials were flowing, temporary shelters were rising, youth were being trained in hospitality. 

The Churachandpur DC had a convoy. Security could have been arranged in thirty minutes. Yet after three days in Imphal—reviewing valley schemes and taking a selective hill detour to Noney—Sanjay Kumar chose pixels over proximity. This was not logistics. It was capitulation. A message to every Kuki official: the valley is off-limits. A message to every Meitei resident: the hills are still far from Imphal. Indeed, it was a message to the 70,000 displaced: your bureaucracy has accepted the ethnic apartheid you live under.

Six days later, on November 11, Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Ajay Tamta landed in Imphal—then immediately bypassed the state capital and drove straight to Churachandpur’s Mini Secretariat. There, he was received with full protocol by the same DC Dharun Kumar Singh, district officers, IDP representatives, and scheme beneficiaries. What followed was a full-blown state function in a district office: five IDP students who topped board exams received awards; benefits under PM-FME, RKVY, JJM, and PMJAY were distributed; participants in Jan Jatiya Gaurav Diwas 2025 competitions were felicitated; special awards went to Lalthazam, CEO of the Autonomous District Council Company; Seiminthang, Additional Deputy Commissioner; and two Aspirational Blocks Programme Fellows. Ajay Tamta then reviewed departmental progress and assured “continued central support.”

The event was warm, inclusive, and symbolically rich. It was also constitutionally subversive. Imphal has auditoriums that seat thousands. It has media infrastructure. It has symbolic primacy as the capital of a unified state. Award ceremonies have always been statewide events, bringing valley and hill beneficiaries under one roof. By staging this spectacle exclusively in the Churachandpur, the Centre elevated a Mini Secretariat to the status of a parallel capital. 

This is not empowerment. It is entrenchment. It tells hill residents: your future lies here, not in Imphal. It tells valley residents: your capital is no longer the common ground. It tells the Kuki demand for “something separate”—first articulated by 10 tribal MLAs in 2023 —that Delhi is listening.

DC Dharun Kumar hosted with aplomb, but where was the reciprocity? That time was June 27, 2024, when the violence was at its peak—clashes raging, blockades choking the state, highways alive with danger. On that day, Churachandpur DC Dharun Kumar Singh came to Imphal and called on then-Governor Anusuiya Uikey at Raj Bhavan. Amid arson and ambushes, he briefed her on the humanitarian crisis: 15,000 displaced people in relief camps, food and water shortages, reading materials for camp children, the urgent construction of 500 temporary shelters sanctioned by the Ministry of Home Affairs (targeted for completion by August), skill training for 100 youths in hospitality, and upcoming handloom and handicraft programs for local artisans. 

The highways were volatile, the air thick with mistrust, yet DC Dharul Kumar crossed the divide, sat in the Governor’s chamber, and returned with tangible aid. It was a quiet act of defiance: proof that even in the storm’s eye, institutional channels could function. The optics were powerful. If a senior civil servant could navigate 60 kilometers amid bullets and barricades, it signaled to ordinary Kukis and Meiteis alike: movement is possible; the state endures.

And yet, here we are in November 2025, with the violence reduced to a simmer, highways reopened under escort, buffer zones stabilized, and President’s Rule in place. “Peace has returned,” they say. When officials won’t lead, how can we claim peace has arrived?The bureaucracy must blaze the trail: first DCs and their staffs cross freely, then traders, students, families follow. 

Without that initiative, “peace” is performative theater for Delhi’s archives. And now, the BJP’s own leadership—BL Santosh and Sambit Patra—face the same test. They have the organizational muscle, the security, the mandate. If they cannot bring their own Kuki MLAs and mandal bearers to Thambal Sanglen, they indict not just their party but the very idea of a unified Manipur.

If BJP Kuki leaders cannot attend Thambal Sanglen, there is no normalcy. If ministers silo their reviews, there is no peace. If DC Dharun Kumar stays in Churachandpur, there is no progress.Prime Minister Narendra Modi braved rain and road in September 2025 to address rallies in both Imphal and Churachandpur. Crowds turned out. Hope flickered a while. 

Delhi’s response can ignite a new dawn—not another committee, but a symphony of unity that echoes across Manipur’s hills and valleys. Honor the BJP leaders who open Thambal Sanglen’s doors wide, summoning Kuki MLAs and mandal bearers from Churachandpur and Kangpokpi to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their Meitei and Naga party karyakartas. 

Let us cheer the next MoS who chooses the open road, driving those 60 kilometers to review districts in person, their convoy a moving testament that peace is not declared—it is traveled. Begin today: BL Santosh and Sambit Patra, fill Thambal Sanglen until it overflows with shared dreams. 

BJP senior leaders must summon every BJP MLA—including the Kuki representatives—to Thambal Sanglen and hold an open, fearless dialogue about Manipur’s shared future. This single gathering can ignite unity and peace from within the party, sending a powerful message to every citizen. Forget about forming a popular government when this is not happening—the party will remain divided. 

If Sambit Patra continues his earlier pattern of visiting Churachandpur and Kangpokpi to meet leaders like MLA Vungzagin Valte and Nemcha Kipgen in isolation, unity will remain a distant dream. They must be called to Imphal, seated at the party office table, and heard alongside their Meitei colleagues. Only then will the people believe in a united BJP—and a united Manipur. The time for parallel paths is over. Thambal Sanglen must be the starting point of one journey forward.