Two out of three Congress MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh on Monday joined the Bhartiya Janata Party, reducing the strength of the party to one in the House of 60 members.
The state assembly secretariat has accepted the defection of MLAs Wanglin Sawin representing Khonsa East constituency and Gabriel Denwang Wangshu (Kanubari) from Congress to BJP and has accordingly published it in its bulletin.
Both the MLAs had resigned from their posts on September 20, 2015, which was accepted by the then Speaker Nabam Rebia. However, the MLAs had challenged the decision in the high court, stating that their signatures were taken under mysterious circumstance by the then chief minister Nabam Tuki.
The MLAs were reinstated as members of the Sixth Legislative Assembly by Speaker Tenzing Norbu Thongdok on September 23 last year after the Gauhati high court directed the Speaker to take up their case under constitutional provisions.
With the joining of the two Congress MLAs, BJP’s strength has gone up to 49 with he support from one of its associate member and an Independent, while the Congress now is being represented only by former chief minister Nabam Tuki and Peoples’ Party of Arunachal has ten MLAs.