Arunachal: Fmr CM Gegong Apang floats new political party, to contest assembly polls

Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) [India], August 23 (ANI): Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Gegong Apang on Wednesday launched a new political party-‘Arunachal Democratic Party’ to contest the state assembly elections due next year.

In the current assembly the BJP led by Chief Minister Pema Khandu enjoys absolute majority with 52 of the 58 seats (two seats are vacant). There is no leader of opposition either in the state assembly. 

He said that the Arunachal Democratic Party has decided to field candidates for all the 60 Assembly seats and two parliamentary seats in the State. 

Gegong Apang a former Congressman served as the 3rd Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh from 18 January 1980 to 19 January 1999 and again from August 2003 to April 2007. 

Apang now wants to build his own partu and says the focus of the new outfit would be to “root out corruption” and to “improve the law and order situation” in the state.

Speaking to ANI, he said, “I am a Democrat, people of Arunachal are Democrats. So, it should be a Democratic party. It is not a dynastic or communal party. At the same time, there is lawlessness in the state”.

“Therefore there is an urgent need to set up a responsible administration. At the same, we should also redress the grievances of the people. We will like to see to have a people-friendly government,” the former CM added.

Apang informed that the ‘permission’ to float the new political party was granted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) after the party had submitted an application to the poll body earlier this year.

Apang is Arunachal Pradesh’s longest-serving Chief Minister and also the fourth longest-serving Chief Minister after Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim, Jyoti Basu of West Bengal and Naveen Patnaik of Odisha.