Arunachal: BJP succumbs to AAPSU pressure, party tickets to non-indigenous candidates of Vijoynagar withdrawn

ITANAGAR: Succumbing to pressure from the All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU), the BJP party has finally withdrawn the party tickets it had issued to non-indigenous candidates for the upcoming ZPM and GPM elections.

The AAPSU, the apex students' body of the state, had on Monday threatened to launch a series of democratic movements if the BJP did not withdraw or cancel the party tickets given to non-indigenous candidates for contesting polls.

The students' union had accused the ruling BJP of "undermining the scheduled tribe status" of the people of Arunachal by giving tickets to non-indigenous candidates.

Finally acquiescing to the demand, the state BJP president Biyuram Wahge in a letter dashed off to Changlang district's returning officer stated, “All the BJP tickets issued earlier to the party prospective candidates for 14/08 Vijoynagar zilla parishad (ZPM) and all the gram panchayat constituencies of 14/08 Vijoynagar is withdrawn and stands cancelled.”

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He further asked the RO not to recognize and accept any BJP tickets in the upcoming panchayat election in the mentioned ZPM and GPM constituencies.

The state BJP office has confirmed the withdrawal of the party tickets. It, however, did not specify the reason for the abrupt cancellation.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday said that he would soon hold a meeting and look into the matter seriously.

“We will find out what the constitution says and will contemplate on it. If required, we will also take up the matter with the State Election Commission,” Khandu said.

On whether it was feasible to continue to hold the panchayat elections on political party lines, Khandu said that the matter had been discussed in the assembly earlier but the opposition was against it.

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“I personally feel that the panchayat election should not be held on party lines because there is a lot of give and take of money in the name of democracy in the grassroots level itself, and it is wrong. I had hoped that the elections at the grassroots level would be free from political parties, but my wanting it alone does not help,” he has been quoted as saying.

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