The BJP on June 2 returned to power in Arunachal Pradesh for the third time in a row, winning 46 seats in the 60-member Assembly and bagging four more seats compared to its 2019 tally.
In sweeping the Assembly election, the BJP decimated the opposition parties especially the Congress, which was relegated to the fifth position with only one seat, after the National People’s Party (5), Nationalist Congress Party (3), and People’s Party of Arunachal (2). Three seats went to independent candidates.
Votes were counted for 50 Assembly segments for which elections were held in the north-eastern State along with the Lok Sabha election on April 19. The rest 10 seats were won by the saffron party uncontested.
“I bow in gratitude to the great people of Arunachal Pradesh for their continued trust in the vision of PM Narendra Modi ji and sincere efforts of Team Arunachal in taking care of the well-being of every section of society,” Pema Khandu posted on X. “Your overwhelming support to @BJP4Arunachal is in sync with our collective commitment and endeavours to take the state to the zenith of inclusive development. It’s our firm resolve not to let the process of building a self-reliant Arunachal Pradesh derailed under any circumstances,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the people of Arunachal Pradesh for the landslide win. “Thank you Arunachal Pradesh! The people of this wonderful state have given an unequivocal mandate to politics of development. My gratitude to them for reposing their faith in @BJP4Arunachalyet again. Our Party will keep working with even greater vigour for the state’s growth,” Modi said in a post on X.
Development a major factor: Khandu
The development witnessed in Arunachal Pradesh under the BJP-led Central government is a major factor for the party’s win in the State, the Chief Minister asserted. “The BJP has started its winning streak from the ‘Land of Rising Sun’ (Arunachal) and this trend will spread throughout the country which the people will witness on June 4. The party will sweep the Lok Sabha polls with a huge margin and Narendra Modi become the Prime Minister for the third term,” he told reporters.
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To a question regarding the formation of the new ministry, Khandu said that after the Lok Sabha election counting on June 4, all the winning candidates of the party would convene a meeting where the chief ministerial candidate would be decided. “BJP is a disciplined party. The party will select the leader with consensus from all elected candidates,” Khandu said.
While the BJP’s vote share is 54.57 per cent, as many as 14 party candidates including Education Minister Taba Tedir, were defeated this time. The Minister was defeated by the NCP nominee Toko Tatung, a greenhorn, in the Yachuli constituency. A total of 20 first-timers tasted victory in the State: 11 of them are from the BJP, four from NPP, two each from PPA and NCP, and one independent.
The opposition Congress, which fielded 19 candidates in the 60-member Assembly, managed to bag only one seat, Bamang, where former State Home Minister Kumar Waii won by a slender margin of 635 votes, defeating BJP’s Doba Lamnio.
State Congress president Nabam Tuki said the party was “disappointed but not demoralised” by the election results. “We will introspect about the causes of the defeat and work on the organisation in the coming days,” he added. The NPP, which won five seats, annexed 16.11 per cent while the NCP gained a vote share of 10.43 per cent and won three seats. The regional PPA managed to win two seats with a vote share of 7.24 per cent.
Kiren Rijjiju, Union Minister and Lok Sabha candidate from Arunachal Pradesh, said the credit for these Assembly election results goes to the people of the State, BJP workers, and the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. “The development that took place in Arunachal Pradesh in the last 10 years, didn’t happen when the Congress was in power there for 60 years… This victory will inspire us to work more in the future,” Rijiju said.
All four women candidates of BJP win
Eight women candidates were in the fray in the Assembly election. Of them, four were fielded by the BJP, three by the Congress, and one was an independent nominee.
Former Chief Minister Kalikho Pul’s widow Dasanglu Pul won the Hayuliang seat in Anjaw district unopposed. This was the third time in a row that she won from the constituency. Pul had first won the byelection from the constituency in 2016 after her husband died by suicide on August 9 that year. She had also won the seat in 2019.
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Tsering Lhamu, the widow of former lawmaker Jambey Tashi, won the Lumla seat by a margin of 1,531 votes. Earlier, she had won the byelection to the constituency in February 2023, after her husband’s death on November 2, 2022, due to cardiac arrest.
Chakat Aboh won the Khonsa West seat by a margin of 804 votes. Aboh had first won the seat in a byelection in 2019 after her husband Tirong Aboh of the NPP was assassinated by militants on May 21 that year, a day before the declaration of results. Nyabi Jini Dirchi, a greenhorn, has this time defeated sitting MLA Gokar Basar in Basar constituency by a margin of 1,791 votes.
In 2019, three women won in the Assembly election, including Dasanglu Pul, Gum Tayeng from Dambuk, and Jummum Ete Deori from Leka seat.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI)
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