Congress not sure about contesting all 60 Assembly seats in Arunachal Pradesh, names 34 candidates

Guwahati: The Congress, which had remained in power for a long time in Arunachal Pradesh till 2016, on Thursday released its first list of 34 candidates that comprised 28 new faces, for the Assembly elections slated to be held on April 19. Hoever, the party is not sure about contesting in all the 60 constituencies given the paucity of candidates.

"We are working very hard to manage candidates for the remaining seats," senior Congress MLA and former CM Nabam Tuki told reporters at Itanagar before AICC released the first list of candidates.

Two former home ministers, Tanga Byaling and Kumar Waii, are the only prominent candidates in the list, while the party has named three women to contest the single-phase polls. Polls for two Lok Sabha constituencies and the 60-member Assembly will be simultaneously conducted on April 19.

The ruling BJP on March 13 released its list of candidates for all 60 constituencies, dropping three former ministers and an MLA. The list triggered disgruntlement among many as the party gave tickets to at least 12 turncoats who switched from the NPP, JD(U) and the regional People's Party of Arunachal. At least three former BJP MLAs switched over to its ally NPP and the PPA. However, sources said none showed interest to join Congress given the grand old party's "bleak future" in the frontier state elections.

The Congress, which won four Assembly seats in the 2019 Assembly polls, is now left with only one MLA (Nabam Tuki) as the three others, including former minister Ninong Ering, joined BJP recently. In the 2019 polls, BJP had won 41 seats followed by JD(U)'s seven, NPP's five, Congress' four and PPA's one. However, all the MLAs in the Opposition camp, barring Tuki, switched to BJP. JD(U) and NPP are now allies of BJP. The two parties, however, are also likely to contest the Assembly polls.

Spoilt for choices:

The BJP, meanwhile, is spoilt for choices with many leaders jostling for space given the party's chance of winning the elections again. BJP has already named Union Minister Kiren Rijiju and Tapir Gao as candidates for the two Lok Sabha seats.

On Thursday evening, AICC named Tuki and former education minister Bosiram Siram as candidates for Arunachal West and Arunachal East Lok Sabha constituencies, respectively.

"I am eager to contest in the Assembly elections. But the party wants me to field in the Lok Sabha seat. I am ready if the party decides to field me in both Lok Sabha as well as Assembly polls" Tuki said when asked by reporters at Itanagar on Thursday. 

The Congress was in power for a long time, up until 2016, when MLAs, barring a few, led by CM Pema Khandu defected to BJP. The saffron party formed the government again in 2019.