Arunachal Assembly Polls: A fortnight before voting, BJP gets first victory

The Bharatiya Janata Party got its first victory in Arunachal Pradesh a fortnight before polling with one of its candidates for the assembly elections in the state winning unopposed but it will have to wait until March 28 for a formal announcement, the state’s chief electoral officer said Tuesday.

Voting for remaining 59 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats in the state will take place in the first phase of polling on April 11.

“Only two candidates had filed nominations for the Along East seat. After scrutiny, the nomination paper of the Congress candidate Minkir Lollen was rejected. Kento Jini is the lone eligible candidate,” Arunachal Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Kaling Tayeng said.

“Officially we can declare the BJP candidate as the winner only after the necessary formalities are completed following last date of withdrawal of nomination papers on March 28,” he added.

Earlier, BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav tweeted: “Victory march of BJP starts from Arunachal Pradesh. Sir Kento Jini has won uncontested from Alo(ng) East constituency.”

Last week, 20 BJP leaders in Arunachal Pradesh, including two ministers and six MLAs, joined the National People’s Party (NPP). This move took the strength of the NPP to 13 in the Assembly. The BJP still has 40 MLAs in the 60-member House.

The defections came after many of the sitting MLAs were no renominated.