Guwahati: With 10 Assembly seats already in its pocket, the ruling BJP on Saturday exuded confidence of a clean sweep in Arunachal Pradesh, where counting of votes polled for Assembly elections is slated on Sunday.
Polling was conducted for 50 of the 60-member Assembly as 10 sitting BJP MLAs including CM Pema Khandu and deputy CM Chowna Mein were elected uncontested. With the Opposition Congress contesting only in 19 seats, BJP workers claim that there was no proper contest, barring a few seats from its ally National People's Party (NPP). The NPP, which put up candidates in 20 seats, is seen as the second biggest party in the frontier state.
"It is going to be a clean sweep," a BJP leader in Arunachal Pradesh said when asked about their expectations. "The kind of development that took place in the past 10 years, people of Arunachal Pradesh did not see such work in the past. People want the development momentum going," he said.
Chief Electoral Officer Pawan Kumar Sain on Saturday said counting will begin at 6am in 48 counting halls in the headquarters of all 25 districts. A total of 133 candidates contested the polls conducted on April 19. The state has a little over 8.92 lakh voters.
The BJP, which seeks to retain power, flagged the infrastructure development works during the campaigns while the Congress struggled to put up candidates in all the seats. The Congress continued to grapple with leadership crisis, even saw some leaders including MLAs switch over to the BJP ahead of the elections.
Arunachal Pradesh was a Congress stronghold till 2016 when CM Pema Khandu, who got elected from Congress in 2014, defected to BJP along with MLAs giving the saffron party its first government in the frontier state. Khandu-led BJP government got re-elected in 2019 with 41 seats while several legislators belonging to JD-U and NPP also switched over to BJP later.
Poll percentage: 82.95 per cent
Number of seats: 60
Polling conducted: 50 seats
2019 results:
BJP 41, JD-U: 07, NPP: 05, Cong: 04, PPA: 01, Ind: 02
Published 01 June 2024, 15:48 IST