3 BJP candidates win uncontested for Arunachal Pradesh assembly

The BJP in Arunachal Pradesh opened its account with three candidates declared elected unopposed in the 60-member Assembly, after the final date of withdrawal of candidature on Thursday.

Bharatiya Janta Party (Source: PTI)

ITAMAGAR: The BJP in Arunachal Pradesh opened its account with three candidates declared elected unopposed in the 60-member Assembly, after the final date of withdrawal of candidature on Thursday. The state is going to simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly polls on April 11. While BJP nominee Kento Jini won from Aalo East assembly constituency after the nomination papers of his lone rival Minkir Lollen of the Congress was found invalid during scrutiny on Tuesday, another BJP candidate was elected unopposed from Yachuli seat. BJP candidate from Dirang seat Phurpa Tsering emerged victorious without a contest after Congress nominee Tsering Gyurme and Independent candidate Gombu Tsering withdrew their papers on Thursday, Additional Chief Electoral Officer Kangki Darang told reporters here. With the withdrawal of nominations by 20 candidates till Thursday, a total of 191 candidates remained in the fray to contest in 57 assembly constituencies of the state. The ruling BJP has now 57 candidates while opposition Congress would contest on 47 seats, National Peoples Party (NPP) on 30 constituencies, Janata Dal Secular (13), Janata Dal United (17) and the Al India Party (AIP) has fielded a single candidate. There are also 17 independents in the fray in the assembly polls. Altogether 10 female candidates are in the fight in the assembly polls with Congress fielding the highest number of four, followed by BJP in three constituencies, one each by JD(U) and Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA) and a lone Independent, Darang said. Unreserved seat Bordumsa-Diyun has the highest record of 10 candidates locking horns to win the battle of ballots. A total of 12 candidates, including one female, are in the fray for the two Lok Sabha seats in the state. In the Western Parliamentary seat there are seven candidates while in the Eastern seat there are a total of five nominees. A total of 7,94,162 voters, including 4,01,601 women, would exercise their franchise in the April 11 simultaneous polls in 2,202 polling stations spread across the state. There are also 3000 odd physically challenged voters in the state. This time, there are also 11 polling stations in the state that will exclusively be for women. There are 518 remote polling stations in the state where polling parties would travel by foot. In 14 polling stations spread across Kra Daadi, Upper Subansiri and Anjaw districts, chopper will be pressed to ferry men and materials for conducting polling, Darang said. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has appointed 26 General Observers, 20 Expenditure Observers and two police observers to oversee the poll process. So far police along with Static Surveillance Team and Flying squads appointed by the ECI, so far has seized cash amounting to two crore 73 lakhs with highest amount of 74 lakhs in Papum Pare district along with 89,798 bottles of liquor, Darang added.