Arunachal: PPA announces alliance with BJP for both assembly and LS polls

In a significant political development, the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA), the lone regional political party of the frontier state has announced its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for both the ensuing assembly as well as the Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing the media, PPA Secretary General Kaling Jerang yesterday announced that in the upcoming elections, it will support the BJP under the umbrella of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA).

To maintain the spirit of alliance between the two parties, PPA would not field candidates for Parliamentary seats in the state–Arunachal Pradesh East and Arunachal Pradesh West, in the upcoming elections, said Kaling Jerang.

PPA has appealed to all its assembly constituency candidates and its supporters to bolster up both BJP parliamentary candidates of Western and Eastern parliamentary seats.

“We could not go for a pre-poll alliance with the BJP because we did not have a sitting MLA, but by re-electing BJP candidates in both parliamentary seats, we will go for a post-poll alliance,” said Kaling Jerang.

Kiren Rijiju, the Earth Sciences Minister in the Narendra Modi Cabinet is contesting the Arunachal West Lok Sabha seat, while, Arunachal Pradesh BJP president and sitting MP Tapir Gao is contesting for the Arunachal Pradesh East seat.

Polling for the 50 assembly seats and 2 Lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh will be held on April 19 and results will for the Assembly polls will be declared on June 2 and for the LS polls on June 4.

The ruling BJP has won 10 seats unopposed to the 60-member Arunachal Assembly.

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