By IANS,
Itanagar:The ruling Congress party swept the Arunachal Pradesh assembly polls for the second straight term Thursday winning 42 of the total 60 seats, although Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress sprang a surprise emerging as the main opposition party in its electoral debut in the state.
The Trinamool Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with five seats each have emerged as the primary opposition, followed by the People’s Party of Arunachal, a regional party, with four seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning three. One Independent candidate also won.
In the 2004 assembly elections, the Congress had won 34 seats, Independents 13, the BJP nine and the NCP and the regional Arunachal Congress two each.
“This is a victory for good governance and stability, besides all round development that we were able to bring to the state,” Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu told IANS.
“We thank the people of the state for giving us a chance to rule for yet another term,” said Khandu, who is set to become the chief minister for the second straight term.
Voting was held for 57 seats with three candidates declared elected unopposed.
Chief Minister Khandu and two Congress members – MLA Tsewang Dhondup from Tawang and debutant Jambey Tashi from the Lumla seat – were declared elected unopposed.
Khandu was elected unopposed from the Mukto constituency in Tawang district, bordering China, for the third straight term after he won the seat in the 1999 and 2004 assembly elections as well.
Polling was held Oct 13 with an estimated 72 percent vote recorded of a total of 750,000 voters.
The surprise element was the victory of five Trinamool Congress candidates – all defeating their nearest Congress party rivals.
Of the 28 candidates fielded by the Trinamool Congress, five were former Congress party ministers and 10 were sitting MLAs from the ruling party who were denied tickets this time.
Two of the dissident Congress candidates, Tani Loffa and Kamthok Lowang, who contested as Trinamool candidates won.
Another major surprise was the shock deafeat of four-time chief minister Gegong Apang and his son Omak Apang.
Gegong Apang lost to NCP candidate Alo Libang by 1,370 votes in the Tuting Yingkiong assembly constituency, while his son Omak also lost the Pasighat West seat to Tangor Tapak of the BJP by just 661 votes.
The senior Apang was once close to surpassing West Bengal chief minister and veteran Left leader Jyoti Basu’s distinction of being chief minister for 20 long years. Apang managed to rule the state for nearly 19 years, before his clout got a beating following corruption charges.