Arunachal Pradesh Assembly Elections 2024: BJP set to form govt in state for third term, Congress almost wiped out

Guwahati: The ruling BJP swept the Assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh by winning 46 out of 60 seats on Sunday---a victory that pushed the party workers into exuberance ahead of Lok Sabha poll results on Tuesday.

The Opposition Congress, which was the main political party in the frontier state till 2016, was almost wiped out as the grand old party managed to win only one out of 19 seats it contested.

With 10 MLAs already elected uncontested, the mood in BJP was already upbeat but the results on Sunday made the party workers dance to the tunes of dhols (drums) and burst crackers as the saffron party was set to form the government for the third straight term. This surpassed BJP's tally in the 2019 Assembly elections, when it had bagged 41 seats. Four women candidates, all belonging to BJP, were elected as MLAs on Sunday.

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Two other allies of BJP, National People's Party (NPP) and Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), came second and third by winning five and three seats, respectively. The NPP in 2019 had won in four.

The opposition People's Party of Arunachal (PPA) managed to better its 2019 tally, from one to two seats. Three Independent candidates were declared winners. The counting of votes for 50 Assembly seats began at 6am on Sunday with BJP leading in several seats from the beginning.

"This is a historic win for all of us as we have got more seats than 2019. The mandate suggests people's wish to keep the BJP's development momentum going in Arunachal Pradesh," Chief Minister Pema Khandu told reporters in Itanagar soon after the results. During the campaigns, BJP flagged the infrastructure development works taken up in Arunachal Pradesh under the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre and alleged Congress' failure to counter China's claims over the frontier state. "Our mission in the next five years is to make Arunachal a developed state and ensure a strong BJP," said Ashok Singhal, the party's in-charge of Arunachal Pradesh.

Congress, which leveled corruption allegations against the Khandu government, however, struggled to put up candidates in all the seats. "By giving the mandate to BJP again, people of Arunachal Pradesh maintained the long trend of voting for the party in power at the Centre. At the same time, we must admit that we could not convince winnable candidates to fight the elections on our tickets. We announced the names of 34 candidates but many backed out and finally we could put up only 19 candidates," said Nabam Tuki, former CM and senior Congress leader. Tuki, the only prominent face, is contesting the Lok Sabha polls against Union Minister Kiren Rijiju in Arunachal West Lok Sabha seat.

Poll battle:

Polling was conducted for 50 seats as 10 sitting BJP MLAs including CM Pema Khandu and deputy CM Chowna Mein were elected uncontested. Arunachal Pradesh was a Congress stronghold till 2016 when Pema Khandu, who got elected from Congress in 2014, defected to People's Party of Arunachal first and then to BJP along with 43 MLAs giving the saffron party its first full-fledged government. Khandu-led BJP government got re-elected in 2019 with 41 seats while several legislators belonging to JD-U and NPP also switched over to BJP later. JD (U), however, did not contest the elections this time.

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