New Delhi: Exactly two months after Mr Pema Khandu was named the Legislature Party leader in Arunachal Pradesh by the Congress to win back its rebels and check growing infighting, the party faced a severe jolt as he and 42 party MLAs defected and merged with the People’s Party of Arunachal, which is associated with a BJP-led front in the northeast.
Mr Khandu, who had replaced Mr Nabam Tuki following a dissident campaign in July, paraded 42 MLAs before Assembly Speaker Tenzing Norbu Thongdok, who accepted their joining the PPA, Assembly sources said.
It is the second time this year that the Congress has been hit by rebellion in the state. Mr Tuki, who had made way for Mr Khandu as part of a peace deal, was the only legislator left with the Congress.
“Gross and rampant misuse of money power finally delivered an immoral government of opportunists and turncoats. The mandate of the people of Arunachal Pradesh, who voted Congress to power, has been robbed in broad daylight,” said Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala. Insisting that the BJP had no role, Union minister Kiren Rijiju claimed Congress MLAs were “angry with their own leadership”.
BJP accused of MLAs’ defection
“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 said, adding that “if the MLAs don’t want to stay with the Congress, what can the others do”.
He said the Supreme Court had reinstated the Congress government in July, but “ultimately the MLAs’ decision is final” and the Congress unnecessarily blames the BJP.
The Congress accused the BJP of using money and muscle power and said having been thwarted twice, BJP began by engineering defections and threats to subvert the people’s mandate.
