The Janata Dal (United) on Wednesday announced its candidate for the Arunachal West constituency for the Lok Sabha elections this year.
In a statement, JD(U) general secretary Afaque Ahmad said the party’s Arunachal president, Ruhi Tangung, will be its candidate from the constituency. “This announcement is being made as directed by party president Shri Nitish Kumar,” he added.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the seat was won by the BJP. The Congress, the biggest member of the opposition INDIA bloc, which also includes the JD(U), came second. The northeastern state has two Lok Sabha seats.
“We were interested in the West Lok Sabha seat from the very beginning. The Congress announced its candidate a month after the INDIA bloc was formed (in July last year). We also made our intentions (to contest from the seat) clear to the Congress and waited for a reply till December 19. The JD(U) president announced the name after the party failed to get a response,” a JD(U) functionary said, seeking anonymity.
Reacting to the announcement, Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee working president Bosiram Siram said: “I have no idea about the JD(U) announcement... The party high command has also not informed us of any such thing. As of now, we have candidates for both the Lok Sabha seats from Arunachal Pradesh and we will wait for a green signal from the party leadership on who (which party) would contest from those seats.”