The Election Commission of India has announced that elections for the 60-member Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly will be conducted on April 19. The polling will occur in a single phase, and the counting of votes is scheduled for June 4.
These Assembly polls will coincide with the Lok Sabha elections for the two seats of Arunachal East and Arunachal West.
The current tenure of the state Assembly is slated to conclude on June 2.
In the previous Assembly elections held in 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged victorious, leading to Pema Khandu assuming the role of Chief Minister. Presently, the BJP holds 53 seats, while the National People's Party has two, with one each held by the Congress and an Independent MLA.
For the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has nominated Union Minister Kiren Rijiju from Arunachal West and Tapir Gao, the state president of the BJP, from the Arunachal East seat. Both Rijiju and Gao were included in the BJP's initial list of 195 candidates for the polls released on March 2.
During the 2019 national elections, the BJP-led NDA secured a significant voter percentage of 58.2%, while the Congress trailed behind with 20.69%.
While the Congress is yet to finalize its candidates in the northeastern state, the Janata Dal (United) has selected Ruhi Tagung, the party's state chief, as its candidate for Arunachal West.
Earlier this month, former Chief Minister Nabam Tuki resigned as the state president of the Congress, citing "moral grounds" due to his inability to prevent MLAs from defecting to other political parties.
Furthermore, in March, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Lombo Tayeng, a six-time MLA from Mebo in East Siang district, joined the BJP, along with two other Congress MLAs, Ninong Ering and Wanglin Lowangdong, who made the switch to the BJP the previous month.
