Nongthombam Biren Singh (born 1 January 1961) is an Indian politician who was Chief Minister of Manipur from March 2017 to February 2025, the first from the Bharatiya Janata Party. A former professional footballer and newspaper editor, he won two elections for his party. His second term was overtaken by the ethnic violence between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities that began in May 2023, and he resigned after nearly two years of it.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Nongthombam Biren Singh |
| Born | 1 January 1961, Imphal, Manipur |
| Age | 65 |
| State | Manipur |
| Earlier careers | Footballer; journalist |
| Party | Bharatiya Janata Party (since 2016); earlier Indian National Congress |
| Offices | Chief Minister of Manipur (2017–2025); minister in the state government (2003–2016) |
| Constituency | Heingang |
| Spouse | Hiyainu Devi |
| Children | 3 |
Early Life
He was born at Luwangsangbam, on the edge of Imphal, into a Meitei family. He was a talented footballer.
Footballer
He was recruited by the Border Security Force and played for its team, one of the strongest in India at the time. He was a member of the BSF side that won the Durand Cup, the country’s oldest football tournament, in 1981. He left the force and returned to play for Manipur.
Journalist
In 1992, with no training in journalism, he founded a Manipuri-language daily newspaper, Naharolgi Thoudang, and edited it for a decade. In 2000 he was arrested and briefly held on a charge of sedition for publishing a speech; the experience helped turn him towards politics.
Career
Legislator and minister
He was elected to the Manipur assembly from Heingang in 2002 as a candidate of a regional party and joined the Congress the following year. He served as a minister under Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh for many years, with portfolios including irrigation, youth affairs and sport, and was the government’s spokesman.
Chief Minister
After falling out with Ibobi Singh he joined the BJP in October 2016. In the election of March 2017 the Congress won more seats, but the BJP assembled a majority with smaller parties, and he was sworn in on 15 March.
In his first term he ended the long blockade of the highways into the valley, held cabinet meetings in the hill districts under the slogan “Go to the Hills”, and launched a campaign against the cultivation of opium poppy. The BJP won a majority of its own in 2022.
The violence
On 3 May 2023, after a march by tribal students against a proposal to grant Scheduled Tribe status to the Meiteis, the majority community of the valley, violence broke out between Meiteis and the Kuki-Zo tribes of the surrounding hills. More than 250 people were killed over the following two years and some 60,000 driven from their homes. The two communities were separated into zones guarded by security forces, and armouries were looted.
Kuki-Zo organisations accused him of siding with his own community and demanded his removal and a separate administration. He blamed illegal migration from Myanmar and the drugs trade. A video of two women being paraded naked by a mob, which surfaced in July 2023, caused outrage across India. On the last day of 2024 he made a public apology for what the state had suffered.
Resignation
With legislators of his own party in revolt and a no-confidence motion expected, he resigned on 9 February 2025. President’s Rule was imposed four days later and lasted almost a year. A new government under another BJP leader was formed in February 2026.
Personal Life
He is married to Hiyainu Devi and has a son and two daughters. A son-in-law is a member of the Manipur assembly. He remains a legislator.
Manipur’s best-known public figures include the activist Irom Sharmila and the boxer Mary Kom.
Featured image: N. Biren Singh, then Chief Minister of Manipur, in New Delhi, September 2017. Photo by the Vice President’s Secretariat, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
