In the month since he has taken charge as Manipur’s new Chief Minister, Yumnam Khemchand Singh’s primary focus has been on outreach and reconciliation in the bruised and divided state, even as his government is yet to be fully formed and find its feet.Khemchand was sworn in on February 4, one year after his embattled predecessor N Biren Singh resigned and President’s Rule was ordered in the state. A part of Biren Singh’s cabinet, Khemchand, a Meitei leader, was one of the senior-most Manipur BJP MLAs who had rebelled against the CM, paving the way for his resignation.AdvertisementFrom the outset, Khemchand has been clear that his mandate as CM is to remedy the image of partisanship and complicity that the Biren Singh government came to acquire over the course of the Meitei-Kuki-Zo conflict in the state, which began in May 2023.In fact, even while the state was still under President’s Rule, Khemchand had in December 2025 reached across the aisle and visited a Kuki-Zo relief camp in Ukhrul’s Litan – in the first such conciliatory move undertaken by any MLA in the state after the conflict began.As CM, Khemchand’s tenure so far has been marked by an expansion of similar gestures. For example, at the passing away of Zomi MLA Vungzagin Valte, who was grievously injured in an assault by a Meitei mob in Imphal at the start of the conflict. Khemchand flew down to Gurugram, to visit Valte’s family at the hospital where he passed away on February 21.AdvertisementOn February 8, the CM along with other Meitei MLAs were present to see Valte off at Imphal airport, when he was flown to Gurugram as his condition deteriorated.Later, when Valte’s body was brought home, Khemchand’s Deputy Chief Minister Losii Dikho, a Naga, visited the family.On February 11, Khemchand travelled to Jiribam district, where he met displaced people from the Hmar tribe – who are part of the Zo umbrella – and met villagers at Jairolpokpi or Zairawn village, where a Hmar woman was shot and burned during violence in November 2024.The CM also held a joint interaction with displaced people from the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities living in camps recently. He was present at the ‘alternate housing campus’ where Meitei families have been living in Imphal West district, and was joined on video by Kuki-Zo people from Kangpokpi and Churachandpur.At the same event, he announced Rs 33 crore as aid for those displaced due to the conflict.A senior security official said the BJP government in the state is on an “overdrive”. The CM’s “rare” visit to meet the Hmar community in Jiribam and aid for the displaced may be “largely gestures”, the official said, but pointed out: “Even this is welcome after the kind of hostility that has been in place.”It remains to be seen though if the gestures would thaw the ice. The Churachandpur-based Kuki-Zo Council continues to “boycott” the three MLAs from the Zo community who are supporting the Khemchand government. This means that Deputy CM Nemcha Kipgen, a Kuki, has not been able to join work in Imphal, and continues to operate either from New Delhi or her home district Kangpokpi, even taking oath long-distance.The chairman of the Kuki-Zo Council, Henlianthang Thanglet, acknowledges Khemchand’s gestures as “good signs”, but adds: “We are of the opinion that it would have been much better if President’s Rule had continued (the next Assembly elections are due in Manipur in a year). And while they (the government) helped and consoled Vungzagin Valte’s family and visited Jiribam etc, we are waiting and watching to see if they can do anything concrete, extend some kind of a settlement towards the Kuki-Zo community. As of now, they are yet to actually start working.”Thanglet added that they will be watching out for this when the Assembly session starts March 9. “We will see what they actually bring to the table.”He also pointed out that Kuki-Zo groups were yet to open communication with the new Adviser (Northeast) appointed by the Union Home Ministry last month, in place of A K Mishra. The groups had been in discussion with Mishra for a political settlement on their demand for “separate administration”, before his term ended.One sign of the challenges facing Khemchand is the number of empty berths in his Cabinet; he continues to have only the four ministers who were sworn in with him, instead of 12 that he is entitled to. The central leadership is treading lightly on the matter, around the aspirations of individual leaders and the state’s diverse communities.It was on the one-month anniversary, March 4, that even the portfolio distribution among the five ministers took place. Khemchand has charge of eight departments in addition to those not specifically allotted.you may likeThe Opposition says the continuing vacancies are proof that though there is a government now in Manipur, the state remains under Central control. “The Centre is directly dictating the state government and the CM is not being able to expand his Council of Ministers. It does not seem to have any effective power and the situation is more or less the same as during President’s Rule,” said Congress Legislature Party leader Keisham Meghachandra Singh.On the outreach emphasis by the Khemchand government, Keisham said: “He is trying many things, at different levels, which it is his duty as the CM. That is what is expected of a CM. (But) The BJP government is responsible for this whole conflict and situation, and bringing back normalcy is also their responsibility. Now, we are waiting to see what concrete plan the state government has to resettle displaced families and restore normalcy.”There have not been any incidents of violence between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities since Khemchand took over. But there were violent protests in Churachandpur over Zo MLAs joining his government, and Manipur has seen emergence of tensions now between the Kukis and Tangkhul Nagas in the Litan area of Ukhrul district, resulting in violence.