New Delhi: Alarm bells have rung in the Congress after five party nominees for the April 19 Arunachal Pradesh Assembly polls got compromised allowing the BJP candidates to get elected unopposed.
On March 22, the Congress Central Election Committee (CEC) had approved 34 candidates for Arunachal Pradesh and the state unit was to finalise names on the five seats in question, including one from where Chief Minister Pema Khandu was contesting.
However, as the Congress candidates could not file their candidature on those five seats on the last day of the nomination on March 27, the five BJP nominees are set to get elected unopposed.
"The high command is miffed and has sought an explanation from All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Arunachal Pradesh Chella Kumar and state unit chief Nabam Tuki," a senior AICC functionary said.
Polling for the 60 member Arunachal Pradesh Assembly will take place on April 19 along with elections for the two Lok Sabha seats in the north-eastern state bordering China.
The incident of Congress giving a walkover to the BJP in the seat of the Chief Minister and in the other four seats has presented the grand old party in a poor light.
Arunachal Pradesh Congress working president Bosiram Siram blamed the BJP for the fiasco and said the incident was murder of democracy.
"We did put up candidates in those five Assembly seats but they got compromised. We had asked our allies to field candidates there but it seems something fishy happened. The BJP used money power to influence them. It is like murder of democracy,” Siram told ETV Bharat.
According to the Arunachal Pradesh Congress leader, "the lapse should be probed and the guilty should be punished." However, he also said that the incident would not affect the Congress prospects in the coming state and national polls.
"The people will see how the BJP misused its position to dent the election process. We will certainly win several seats," he asserted.
In the 2019 Assembly polls, the Congress had contested 46 seats out of 60 and won only four seats. This time both Siram and state unit chief Taki are the Congress candidates for the Arunachal West and Arunachal East Lok Sabha seats respectively.
"Chinese incursions are a big issue here and we have been highlighting it but I don't know what the Centre is doing about it. The BJP is only concerned about itself and does not care for the border state or the problems faced by the locals," added Siram.
The high command had named Techi Taga Tara as the new state working president recently. In 2016, the entire Congress government led by Pema Khandu had joined the People’s Party of Arunachal which was an ally of the BJP. Out of 45 Congress MLAs, 44 had joined the PPA, sending shock waves in the AICC. Nabam Tuki was the lone Congress warrior remaining in the border state.
In 2019, the BJP won 41 seats in the Assembly. The Congress had fielded a lot of youngsters this time in the Assembly polls to beat anti-incumbency.
