Assembly Elections 2019: Ruling BJP look to retain 60-member Arunachal Assembly
The BJP has already got its first victory with one of its candidates for the Arunachal assembly elections winning unopposed. Voting for remaining 59 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats in the state was held on April 11.
Arunachal Pradesh is one of the four states that had simultaneous elections for its two Lok Sabha and 60 Assembly seats.
The Congress which had won assembly election in 2014, lost power in Arunachal Pradesh on September 16, 2016 after all but one of its MLAs joined a regional party. Forty-three MLAs led by chief minister Pema Khandu joined the Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA), leaving the Congress with only former chief minister Nabam Tuki. The PPA then merged with the BJP to give the saffron party its first government in Arunachal Pradesh.
If exit polls are to be believed , the saffron party would make big gains in the northeast, winning 8-10 of the 14 seats in Assam. The party is expected to win both the seats in Arunachal Pradesh and well as the two in Tripura.
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In Manipur, one of the two seats could be bagged by BJP while in Nagaland, BJP’s partner Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) could win the only seat.
The BJP has already got its first victory with one of its candidates for the Arunachal assembly elections winning unopposed. Voting for remaining 59 assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats in the state was held on April 11.
Just a month before the Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP government suffered a setback with two sitting ministers and 6 MLAs of the party joining National People’s Party (NPP) taking the strength of the opposition NPP to 13 and that of the BJP to 40 in the 60-member outgoing assembly.
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The counting of votes comes two days after the killing of the sitting MLA and current candidate from Khonsa West Assembly seat Tirong Aboh, his son and nine others by suspected Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) militants, which has cast a shadow on the state
Earlier, a polling team on way to conduct re-poll in Arunachal Pradesh was allegedly attacked by around 500 masked men in Kurung Kumey district.
According to a report in The Arunachal Times, the polling team was on its way to Nampe where a re-poll was to take place on Tuesday, when they were attacked by people armed with sticks, machetes and rifles and the EVMs and other poll equipment were snatched.
