New Manipur CM Khemchand Singh: Veteran RSS leader and Taekwondo black belt

In 2022, Khemchand was inducted into the second Biren Singh ministry as a cabinet minister and held key portfolios, including municipal administration, housing and urban development, rural development and panchayati raj, and education departments

Two-time Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Yumnam Khemchand Singh, who was sworn in as the Manipur chief minister on Wednesday, is a long-time Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh functionary and an organisation-focused leader who has held key constitutional and ministerial positions in the state.

IMAGE: BJP leader Yumnam Khemchand Singh after taking oath as the chief minister of Manipur, in Imphal, February 4, 2026. Photograph: ANI on X

Key Points

Yumnam Khemchand Singh, a two-time BJP legislator and long-time RSS functionary, has been appointed as the new Chief Minister of Manipur.
Singh has a background in Taekwondo, holding a black belt and serving as a former vice-president of the Taekwondo Federation of India.
He previously served as the Speaker of the Assembly and held key ministerial portfolios, including municipal administration, housing, and education.
Singh's appointment follows the resignation of N Biren Singh and the imposition of President's rule in Manipur.

Apart from politics, he has had a long association with Taekwondo. A black belt holder, he is a former vice-president of the Taekwondo Federation of India and has been involved in the promotion of the sport in the Northeast.

Though Singh has been in politics for decades, the 62-year-old leader made his debut in the Assembly in 2017 from Singjamei constituency in Imphal West district.

Singh was elected speaker of the assembly, a position he held during the first Biren Singh-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state.

In 2022, he was inducted into the second Biren Singh ministry as a cabinet minister and held key portfolios, including municipal administration, housing and urban development, rural development and panchayati raj, and education departments.

He served in the Cabinet till February 2025, when President's rule was imposed in the state, days after N Biren Singh resigned as the chief minister amid criticisms of his government's handling of the ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kukis, which broke out in May 2023.

Khemchand Singh first contested in the 2012 Assembly polls on an All India Trinamool Congress ticket, but lost to a Congress candidate. He formally joined the BJP in 2013.

Born at Singjamei Yumnam Leikai, he completed his High School Leaving Certificate in 1978 from Ram Lal Paul High School in Imphal. He is married and has a son.