Senior BJP leader and Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu, and four other candidates of the Saffron party are ‘set’ to be declared elected unopposed as none of their opponents had filed nominations against them in the five Legislative Assembly Constituencies till Wednesday (March 27), the last date of filing nominations for the April 19 polls.
With this ‘development’, CM Khandu is set to win the battle of the ballots from Mukto constituency in Tawang district without a contest for the third time, and overall, this would be his fourth successive electoral triumph.
The state’s Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Liken Koyu, however, said the fate of the five BJP nominees would be clear after scrutiny of the nomination papers scheduled to be conducted on Thursday.
He added that they could be declared elected uncontested after the last date of withdrawal of candidature, March 30.
Besides Khandu, the four other BJP candidates whose’smooth sailing’ is on cards include Techi Ratu from Sagalee Assembly Constituency, Jikke Tako from Tali, Nyato Dukam from Taliha, and Mutchu Mithi from Roing Constituency, officials said.
None but the retired technocrat Techi Ratu will be the new face in the Assembly. Jikke Tako, Nyato Dukam, and Mutchu Mithi are the sitting MLAs from Tali, Taliha, and Roing constituencies, respectively.
It may be mentioned that only the BJP has fielded its candidates in all 60 Assembly seats. After the BJP, the Independents come in second at 37, followed by 31 from the National People’s Party (NPP), 25 from the Congress (INC), 17 from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and 14 from the regional People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA).
The newly floated regional outfit, the Arunachal Democratic Party (ADP), also fielded five candidates, including veteran politician and former Chief Minister Gegong Apang, who filed his nomination for the Nari-Koyu Assembly seat in Lower Siang district.
Arunachal Pradesh is going to vote to elect a new 60-member state assembly along with two members of parliament in the lower house on April 19. The counting of votes for the Assembly election will take place on June 2 (the day on which the term of the current Assembly expires), two days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls results.
In the 2019 Assembly polls, the BJP had won 41 seats, including three unopposed, while the then-new entrant JD (U) secured seven, the NPP five, Congress four, and the PPA won one seat. Two independents also emerged victorious.
