Imphal, Jan 31 (IANS): Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar has reportedly expressed serious concerns over the ethnic turmoil in Manipur, and assured the lone JD(U) MLA from the northeastern state that he would urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to make all-out efforts to bring back peace in the state at the earliest.

JD(U) MLA Md Abdul Nasir on Tuesday met Nitish Kumar in Patna and discussed the prevailing situation in strife-torn Manipur.

Nasir later said that during the meeting, Nitish Kumar expressed grave concern about the ongoing ethnic crisis in Manipur.

“He (Nitish) assured me that he would request the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to make all-out efforts to bring back peace and restore normalcy in Manipur at the earliest,” Nasir said.

He added: “I called on Nitish-ji at his official residence in Patna to congratulate him for being appointed as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the ninth time under the new alliance with the BJP, and to lobby for ushering normalcy in Manipur.”

“Sharing the pain inflicted on the people by the unceasing strife, Nitish-ji also prayed for peace in the state,” said Nasir, the MLA from Lilong Assembly constituency in Thoubal district.

"On my loyalty to JD(U), Nitish-ji fondly called me ‘you are my trusted friend’ and mentioned that time will tell about the political developments in Manipur,” he said.

The party’s northeast region in-charge, Afaque Ahmad Khan, who termed Nasir as “the face of JD(U) in the region", said that a team of the party would soon visit Imphal to discuss political development as well as the situation in the state.

Meanwhile, political analysts, considering the political landscape in Bihar and taking into account Nasir’s steadfast loyalty to JD(U), felt that he might get a berth in the N. Biren Singh Cabinet in Manipur.

In the 2022 Assembly polls, JD(U) had won a total of six seats in the 60-member House, and was seen as a key player in government formation.

However, after Nitish Kumar walked out of the alliance with the NDA, five of the six party MLAs in Manipur left the JD(U) to merge with the BJP in September 2022, leaving Nasir as the lone JD(U) legislator.

On September 12 the same year, the state unit of JD(U), in line with the political developments in Bihar, had withdrawn support from the BJP-led government in Manipur.

Seeking disqualification of the five MLAs who merged with the saffron party, the state unit of JD(U) had also filed a petition with the Speaker’s tribunal in the Manipur Assembly.