Imphal: Manipur health and family welfare minister Phungzathang Tonsing (77) got married to a girl, 24, on Friday. The bride, Thangngaihsang, recently completed her bachelors in nursing. 

According to Times of India reports, the service was held on Thursday at the minister’s residence in Churachandpur town, 62 km from Imphal. 

Chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, his cabinet colleagues, legislators, senior officials, relatives and well-wishers attended the ceremony. 

Phungzathang has five children from his first wife who died of an illness in April, 2011. A former Manipur PCC president, Phungzathing is one of the most successful tribal ministers in the state. He has held different ministerial portfolios during his long political career. 

The bride, 53 years younger than her husband, is the daughter of T Khamzadou, a resident of New Lamka in Churachandpur district.

A Churachandpur local said Khamzadou’s family consented to the marriage as the “minister needed someone to look after him as most of his children stayed outside the state”.

In November last year, Bangladesh railway minister Mujibul Haque, 67, married 29-year-old Honufa Akhter Rikta in Comilla town. It was Haque’s first marriage.

Source: Hindustan Times, Times of India