In Arunachal Pradesh, BJP eyes a ‘sweep’ with one-sixth of its MLAs ‘elected unopposed’; Congress skips two-third seats

Because of this lack of contest, outgoing Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Deputy CM Chowna Mein have already been “elected”. The no-contests are a clear sign of the overwhelming supremacy of the incumbent BJP in state politics.

In Arunachal Pradesh, elections are largely marked by extensive spending by candidates, which play a key role in shaping the electoral outcomes. In fact, no party other than the BJP even contested in more than one-third of the seats. Among the main players, the Congress contested in just 19 seats, Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party contested in 15, the People’s Party of Arunachal contested in 11, the National People’s Party contested in 20.

With all signs pointing in its favour, the BJP is very confident about retaining its hold over the state. In fact, Khandu has claimed that there will be a clean sweep and that the BJP will walk away with all seats in the state. The party had won 41 seats in the last election, but in the run up to the elections, nearly all the MLAs of the outgoing Assembly jumped ship to switch to the BJP. In the end, the Congress was left with just one MLA – former CM Nabam Tuki. The NPP was left with two MLAs, while there were also two Independent legislators.

The BJP’s position remains strong despite the shadow of corruption over the outgoing government. There was a public outrage following the 2022 leak in assistant engineer recruitment that raised questions on the functioning of the state public service commission amid corruption allegations against Khandu.

The BJP had taken centre stage in state politics overnight in 2016, when Pema Khandu – then a sitting Congress CM – crossed over to the BJP with 43 party MLAs, in line with the national political trends in favour of the BJP. Till then, the state had been a Congress stronghold.

In this election, the flagging Congress managed to put up only 19 candidates. Its only remaining MLA, Tuki, is challenging sitting BJP MP and Union Minister Kiren Rijiju in the Lok Sabha contest from the Arunachal West seat.