Defections on rise in Arunachal,Independents cash in

While the NCP and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) have nominated three candidates each,who were Independents in 2004,the BJP has fielded two Independents.

Altogether 154 candidates are in the fray,of which 57 belong to the Congress.

The NCP has fielded 36 candidates,the AITC 26,BJP 18,and JD(U) three. There are 13 Independents as well.

While 20 Independents of 2004 have attracted the attention of different parties,it is the BJP which has suffered the most in comparison to the 2004 Assembly polls. Fifteen of the BJP candidates in 2004 are with other parties this time. Congress has nominated seven of them.

While five BJP candidates of 2004 are contesting as AITC candidates,two have found favour with the NCP and one with the JD(U).

“These politicians have no principle. They are more interested in winning elections. Party ideology is just meaningless for most of them,” said Bamang Tago,a leading public activist who is fighting a major case of corruption in the PDS in Arunachal Pradesh for nearly five years now.

The state,incidentally,has the unique record of seeing the entire Congress legislature party under Gegong Apang switching over to the BJP in September 2003. One year later when the UPA ousted the NDA at the Centre,Apang returned to the Congress.

That party ideology doesn’t mean much can also be gauged from the composition of the outgoing Assembly.

While the 60-member Assembly,immediately on being constituted after the 2004 polls,had 34 Congress MLAs,the figure rose to 45 as all the nine BJP and two NCP MLAs switched sides to join the ruling party.

All the 13 Independent legislators and the remaining two Arunachal Congress (AC) legislators,too,extended support to the Congress,bringing the Opposition’s strength to zero.

The most interesting defection,however,has taken place in Itanagar LAC where the two key candidates,Kipa Babu (Congress) and Lichi Legi (BJP),were in rival parties five years ago. While Babu won the last elections as a BJP candidate by defeating Legi (Congress),the ruling party this time nominated Babu with Legi shifting to the BJP.

In fact,as many as seven of the nine BJP MLAs who had joined the Congress have been given party tickets,which in turn has prompted Congress candidates who lost last time to shift allegiance to other parties. Eight candidates who were Congress nominees in 2004 are contesting on tickets from other parties.

As many as four former Congress candidates of 2004 are thus AITC candidates this time,while three have contested as NCP candidates. Lichi Legi,on the other hand,is the only Congress candidate of 2004 who is contesting as a BJP candidate this time.