The northeastern state of Manipur has been witnessing violence since May 3.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Biplab Kumar Deb, who is a former chief minister of Tripura – another northeastern state – believes peace will return to the state very soon due to the measures taken by Union home minister Amit Shah.

In an interview with Kumar Shakti Shekhar, Deb, who is the BJP leader in-charge of Haryana, also spoke about the party’s chances of victory in the next year’s assembly election.

Deb, 51, was the first BJP CM of Tripura (March 9, 2018 to May 15, 2022) after the party defeated CPM which had ruled the state for 25 consecutive years from 1993.

Edited excerpts.What do you think is the reason behind the violence not ending in Manipur for close to two months now?Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh is an able leader.

If you read the history of Manipur, you will find that road blockades, fights between the different groups, bandhs and destruction of shops were quite common in the past.

However, the state witnessed blockade only once in the last five years under Biren Singh.

I will thank him for an effective administration.

The violence taking place now is highly unfortunate.

The people of Manipur are not in favour of any disturbance.

Sometimes we get emotionally connected to some incidents.

In my belief, the people of Manipur are peace-loving.

The state is a sacred land.

I come from Tripura.

We have excellent relations with Manipur.

We have matrimonial and spiritual relations with Manipur.

Three queens of our kings have come from that state.

According to my understanding of Manipur, the people of the state themselves will lead their land towards the right direction.The Congress has demanded the resignation of Biren Singh.

What do you have to say about that?Resignation is not the solution to the problem.

The solution is bringing about peace in the state.

The Congress itself does not know what and when it will make a demand.

If resignation is the most important solution, why did they not demand the resignation of Indira Gandhi when she had imposed Emergency in the country on June 25, 1975? How can peace return to Manipur?Union home minister Amit Shah has taken some steps to ensure return of peace to Manipur.

We the people of Northeast and all Indians have full faith and trust in Shah who nullified Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution by ensuring peace in Jammu and Kashmir.

Similarly, he will certainly establish peace and normalcy in Manipur.You are the BJP leader in-charge of Haryana which goes to poll next year.

The BJP could not win an absolute majority in the 2019 assembly election.

How sure are you of a BJP victory under chief minister ML Khattar?We will return to power with an absolute majority under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the basis of the effective governance of the BJP government in the state and hard work of the party workers.

I have seen myself how hard the BJP workers have been working.

The BJP workers have percolated down to the level of ‘panna pramukh’ (head of a page containing names of party workers).

Other parties of Haryana have not even heard about panna pramukh.

This concept will surely be lapped up by the people who have reposed faith in PM Modi in the past and will continue to do so in future.