BJP candidates shine in Arunachal Pradesh

Keeping true to its tradition of always returning ruling party candidates to the Lok Sabha, BJP candidates T Gao and K Rijiju were elected to Parliament from Arunachal East and Arunachal West seats.

Keeping true to its tradition of always returning ruling party candidates to the Lok Sabha, Arunachal Pradesh, the only saffron state in the North-East, on Thursday elected ruling BJP candidates, Tapir Gao and Khiren Rijiju, to Parliament from Arunachal East and Arunachal West constituencies.

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While Tapir Gao beat Wangcha Rajkumar by 44994 votes, Rijiju beat Kamen Ringu, president of Arunachal Congress, a regional party, which fought the election in alliance with the Congress by 47424 votes.

Both the winning BJP candidates were ahead of their nearest rivals increasing their margins steadily throughout the counting, which started on Thursday morning.

Wangcha Rajkumar represented Arunachal East seat for the last two terms of the Lok Sabha and during the 1999 election beat Tapir Gao by over 41000 votes.

Jarbom Gamlin of the then ruling Congress candidate defeated Omak Apang, son of Chief Minister Gegong Apang of the Arunachal Congress by over 60,000 votes.

The Congress did not field any candidate in Arunachal West seat and left it to its ally Arunachal Congress.

Though the BJP won both the seats in Arunachal Pradesh, the jubilation of party workers was short-lived as it was voted out of power at the Centre.

The state unit president of the party, Taba Hare, congratulated the people of Arunachal Pradesh for electing its candidates with huge margins.

The state unit president of the Congress and former chief minister, Mukut Mithi, alleged that the ruling party pumped in a lot of money to win the election and the people voted for the BJP without knowing the actual situation in the country.

He appealed to the people not to commit the same mistake in the coming assembly election because if the Congress Government comes to power in the state it will get all help from the new Congress-led Government at the Centre.