Congress again falls victim in Arunachal Pradesh’s political turmoil
Itanagar, Sept 16: Arunachal Pradesh, as a state is just around 50 years old, but the political journey of this North East region has been turbulent. The state has already seen 11 terms of chief minister and has witnessed President’s Rule twice.
Now this time, Indian National Congress (INC) received the jolt after AP Chief Minister Pema Khandu along with 42 other MLAs left the party and jointly merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally, People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) just two months after it had regained power.
The CM, who took over the power after Nabam Tuki following a dissident campaign in July 2016, paraded with 42 MLAs before Assembly Speaker Tenzing Norbu Thongdok, who accepted their joining the PPA, assembly sources said.
The latest political development has left Congress with governments only in Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram in the Northeast region. The SC judgeent effectively removed the government led by rebel Congress leader Khaliko Pul which was sworn in February with the support of 18 dissident Congress MLAs and two independents and 11 BJP MLAs who gave outside support. The judgement was considered historic.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju noted that internal dissent in Congress is the reason behind the political turmoil in Arunachal Pradesh.
Mr. Rijiju, who is from Arunachal Pradesh, on Friday, said that his party, the BJP, had no role in the latest political development in the State and that the Congress MLAs were “angry with their own leadership”.
Congress is falling victim to the hard hit rebellion for the second time.
“Congress MLAs including the Chief Minister in Arunachal are angry with their own central leadership. They have to wait in Delhi for 4—5 days to meet their own leaders. This has eventually led to MLAs joining a regional party. There is no more Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh,” the Minister told reporters in New Delhi.
The Minister of State for Home said “if the MLAs don’t want to stay with Congress, what can the others do“.
“The Supreme Court also reinstated the Congress government but ultimately the MLAs’ decision is final. Congress tried to blame BJP unnecessarily,” he said.
In the Assembly of 60, the Congress had 47 MLAs. The BJP has 11. There are two independents.
The status of two Congress MLAs is yet to be decided as they resigned before the political developments that led to the first Tuki government falling inJanuary 2016, the imposition of President’s rule and the installation of the Kalikho Pul government for a short period.
Pul, a Congress MLA, committed suicide last month. He was forced to resign in July following the SC judgement.
The echoing political switching
The political turbulence has become a constant in the governance history of Arunachal Pradesh. AP’s former CM Gegong Apang is the only person who had the luxury of being in the power from January 1980 to January 1999 at a stretch.
But there was a split in the split group as well with the then Arunachal Congress Lok Sabha MP Wangcha Rajkumar opposing the appointment of Omak Apang as a junior minister in the second BJP government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1998.
Because of the revolt, Rajkumar was thrown out of the party along with five ministers in the state government. One of them was Mukut Mithi. Mithi then formed a breakaway unit called the Arunachal Congress (Mithi) and became the chief minister with 40 MLAs supporting him.
However, the party merged with the Congress ahead of the 1999 Assembly polls. Following the victory in the state polls, Mithi became the chief minister under the Congress government and remained in power until August 2003.
But Apang regained the power when the Congress and other parties apart from BJP and its allies came under one umbrella of United Democratic Front.
However Apang was prompt to return to the Congress but had to resign from Chief Minister from the post and was replaced by Dorjee Khandu.
The whole political tide in AP signifies that holding the power is the most important factor in the state.
