Assembly polls: After 'backdoor' entry, BJP's first elected govt in Arunachal

The ruling BJP has stormed back to power in Arunachal Pradesh. According to the Election Commission of India, the party has won 34 Assembly seats and is leading in 4 constituencies.

The Janata Dal (United) has won seven seats while the Congress won four. The NPP has won three and leading in one and the People’s Party of Arunachal has won one seat.

Arunachal Pradesh Assembly has 60-seats, but elections were held for 57 seats as three BJP candidates had already won unopposed.

Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein has won the Chowkham seat defeating his nearest Congress rival Khunang Kri by 7,291 votes. The deputy chief minister who had won from the Lekang constituency in Namsai district for the last five consecutive terms since 1995 but this time contested from the Chowkham seat.

Just two days before the counting of votes, the state was rocked by the gunning down of MLA Tirong Aboh and 10 others by suspected NSCN (IM) militants in Tirap district, the police said.

Tirong Aboh, a sitting MLA from Khonsa West constituency, was seeking a re-election from the seat on National People’s Party (NPP) ticket. The Conrad Sangma-led NPP is an ally of the BJP in northeastern states.

Back to 2014

The BJP came to power in Arunachal Pradesh through a “backdoor” entry. In 2014 Arunachal Assembly election, the Congress had won 42 out of 60 assembly seats. The BJP had won 11.
This is how the game and equation changed in the state.

The BJP after a resounding victory in the 2014 General Election was looking to spread its footmarks in the region. In early 2016, Kaliko Pul, a rebel Congress minister, replaced Nabam Tuki to become the CM with a new party – the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) — with BJP support. The BJP had extended the support of its 11 MLAs to help Pul get majority to form a PPA government. Later, 19 other Congress MLAs, including Pema Khandu joined the PPA to be a part of the Pul government.

Meanwhile, Tuki who had gone to the Supreme Court was reinstated as the CM. But he still had to prove his government’s majority in the floor of the 60-member House. After much permutation and combinations, including backdoor channels for talks with the rebel MLAs, the Congress reached a compromise formula. It was decided Tuki would make way for Pema Khandu.

By December 2016, Khandu along with six other MLAs were suspended by the PPA for “attempts” to merge the regional outfit with the BJP. Khandu managed to prove majority in the House with 33 of the PPA’s 43 MLAs joining the BJP, giving the saffron party its second government in Arunachal Pradesh.

Back in 2003, the BJP formed its government for the first time in Arunachal when MLAs of Gegong Apang-led Arunachal Congress had defected to the saffron party.

Meanwhile, the BJP won both the Lok Sabha seats in the state.