Apang's jolt to BJP in poll-bound Arunachal

The former chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Gegong Apang resigned on Tuesday, giving a jolt to the ruling BJP in the poll-bound state.

The veteran politician, who served as chief minister for 23 years, in his resignation letter to BJP chief Amit Shah claimed that the party has become a "platform to seek power" and the leadership gives no importance to "decentralisation or democratic decision-making."

He also claimed that the BJP does not address "real issues" on the ground.

"I'm disappointed to see that the present day BJP is no longer following the principles of the late Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji," Apang's letter said.

"From issues like grassroots delivery of government schemes to matters like Naga peace talks, Chakma-Hajong refugee issue, amendments of the Citizenship bill, telecommunications and real-time digital connectivity to peaceful and cordial relation with neighbours like Bangladesh, Myanmar and China, both the party and the Modi Sarkar are not addressing the real issues," the letter said.

Assembly elections in the frontier state is slated this year to be held along with the Lok Sabha polls.

Apang, a seven-time MLA who was the chief minister for 23 years, headed a Congress government for 19 years since 1980 before quitting the party to form the regional Arunachal Congress.

In 2003, he reportedly engineered a split in the Congress resulting in the fall of the Mukut Mithi government.

He became the chief minister of a coalition government that merged with the BJP, thus giving the saffron party its first state government in the Northeast.

He, however, joined the Congress after the NDA's defeat in the 2004 general elections and became chief minister again following the Congress' victory.

A revolt against his leadership, however, forced Apang to step down in April 2007.

He was arrested in 2010 and sent to jail in a reported scam of Rs 1,000-crore in public distribution system. After his release, he resigned from the Congress in 2014 and joined the BJP.

Sources in the Arunachal BJP, however, said that Apang resigned since he was not getting importance from Chief Minister Pema Khandu, who formed the BJP government in 2016.

"He has become irrelevant in state politics now," said the source.