BJP forms government in Arunachal Pradesh with 33 PPA MLAs joining it

BJP government was installed in Arunachal Pradesh on 31 December 2016. This development came after 33 out of 43 MLAs of the Peoples' Party of Arunachal (PPA), led by Chief Minister Prema Khandu joined BJP.

Now, Prema Khandu who has a support of 47 MLAs in the Assembly of 60-members, paraded all MLAs before the Assembly speaker Speaker Tenzing Norbu Thongdok who accepted their joining. Of these 47, two leaders are independents.

With this, Arunachal Pradesh has become 10th BJP-ruled state and 14th with BJP alliances. Arunachal Pradesh also became the second BJP ruled the state in the north east.

PPA suspends Arunachal CM, Deputy CM, 5 others from primary membership

The event occurred a day after Khandu along with six others was temporarily suspended from PPA for their anti-party activities. Earlier on 31 December 2016, PPA President Kahfa Bengia also expelled 4 more MLAs from the party, namely Bamang Felix, Honchun Ngandam, Punji Mara and Pani Taram.

Apart from this, the PPA, which is an alliance party of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) in the state, selected Takam Pario as the new chief minister of the state. If all went right, then Pario would have succeeded Khandu as the Chief Minister of the state.

Change in Political Equation

The equation of forming a government led by Pario changed after the majority of the MLAs of PPA who initially supported Pario as Chief Minister, later shifted their alliance to Khandu.

Comments of CM Khandu

• He said that the state has failed to see a stable government since a year.

• He joined BJP and formed a government for the sake of development of the state.

• He also refuted all charges that were labelled against him by PPA chief. Instead, he blamed the party of having a weak organisational set-up, which was responsible for the communication gap that was visible among the party workers.