Days ahead of Arunachal Assembly Election, sitting NPP MLA Tarin Dapke joins BJP

Tarin Dapke has pledged his support to the BJP candidate in Raga only to complete the works left to be done in his constituency as well as in the entire

Amid brisk politicking for the Assembly as well as Lok Sabha elections in Arunachal Pradesh, the frontier state is witnessing frequent party hopping of MLAs.

While a few defections are ‘ticket centric’, two sitting MLAs have jumped ship from other parties to the BJP, and extended their unconditional support to the Saffron Party’s official candidates, only for the sake of development.

On March 22, in a rather surprising turn of events ahead of the Assembly Elections, Congress candidate for the Palin Assembly seat, Takam Pario gave up his candidature, resigned from the party, joined BJP and extend his support to the BJP candidate from the seat – Balo Raja.

Similarly, Tarin Dapke the sitting NPP MLA from the Raga constituency, has quit the NPP and officially joined the BJP today.

Dapke like Takam Pario, too has expressed solidarity with the official BJP candidate from the Raga constituency Rotom Tebin.

But in case of Dapke, he has been replaced by the NPP and fielded Ajay Murtem as it’s official candidate from the Raga seat for the ensuing Assembly election in the state.

However, Tarin Dapke has pledged his support to the BJP candidate only to complete the works left to be done in his constituency as well as in the entire Kamle district.

Speaking to Northeast Live, Dapke shared his thoughts and said, “I have joined the BJP as a Karyakarta (party worker) because I have faith in the leadership of PM Modi, BJP national president JP Nadda, CM Pema Khandu and Arunachal BJP president Biyuram Waghe, they are doing really great for the country as well as for Arunachal Pradesh. The economic condition of the nation is getting better day by day, so I have joined the BJP so that there is massive development in Kamle district, which is a newly formed district. Many works have been done in the past (last 5 years) with the help of CM Pema Khandu. It will be difficult to complete the remaining works if we stay in the opposition because we have to go ahead together.”

Backing BJP’s Raga candidate, sitting MLA Tarin Dapke said, “So by supporting Rotom Tebin who is the BJP’s official candidate, I want to carry over my incomplete works and take Kamle forward in the path of development. I haver joined BJP because I want development in my Kamle district which almost lacking behind in every aspect. I hope the BJP’s official candidate will look into these matters, I will guide him too and I will also seek his guidance because our district is very backward. Everyone including NPP’s district president from now on will be supporting him Rotom Tebin.”

On March 19, after being denied party ticket for the assembly election in Arunachal Pradesh, Dorjee Wangdi Kharma, sitting MLA of BJP from Kalaktang constituency switched allegiance from the BJP to the NPP and sought a ticket to contest the election.

On March 23, the NPP announced Kharma’s name as the party’s official from the same seat for the ensuing election.

On March 23, Arunachal Industries Minister and sitting BJP MLA of Aalo West Tumke Bagra, on Saturday quit BJP after being denied ticket for a second term. Within hours he joined Gegong Apang-led Arunachal Democratic Party (ADP) and picked the ticket to contest for the Arunachal West Lok Sabha seat.

On February 25, in a major boost to the ruling BJP, senior Congress leader and MLA Ninong Ering, NPP MLA and son of former Arunachal Pradesh CM Mukut Mithi, Mutchu Mithi, and two other MLAs from Congress and NPP joined the BJP.

Wangling Lowangdong of the Congress and Gokar Basar of the NPP were the two other sitting MLAs who joined the BJP in the presence of Chief Minister Pema Khandu at the BJP office in Itanagar.

But significantly, the NPP in it’s candidate list has announced Gokar Basar as the party’s official candidate from the Basar constituency in the coming Assembly elections.

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