Cracks in Arunachal BJP: Home min Kumar Waii, Gamlin to join NPP?

Itanagar: Cracks have widened in the Arunachal unit of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a section of senior leaders, including state home minister Kumar Waii, former state general secretary Jarpum Gamlin, who resigned from BJP on Monday, Jarkar Gamlin; Thanwang Wangham, leading advocate Tony Pertin and former MLAs Kardo Nyicyor, Tapuk Taku and Tani Loffa, among others, are all set to join Meghalaya CM Conrad K Sangma-led National People’s Party (NPP) soon.

It is learnt that senior leaders of the NPP, including state president and Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma, met the dissident BJP leaders in a closed-door meeting in Guwahati on Monday and prepared the modalities for joining the party.

Sources in NPP informed EastMojo that the dissident faction will also meet NPP general secretary (in-charge of Arunachal Pradesh) Thomas Sangma at Waii International Hotel in Itanagar on Tuesday evening before joining the party.

On Monday, Gamlin, who was the state general secretary for BJP, had tendered his resignation from the primary membership of the saffron party.

The BJP has already announced the names of its candidates for most of the seats in the 60-member Arunachal Pradesh Assembly, polling for which will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections on April 11.

In a letter to Tapir Gao, president of the Arunachal unit of the BJP, Gamlin had said that he had decided to tender his resignation from the primary membership of the party as he couldn’t let down the expectations of his supporters.

Informing that he was closely working with voters across the state, especially in Liromoba assembly constituency, as he was interested to contest the ensuing assembly elections from this constituency. “However, as the party has announced the ticket which is not in my favour, I am in a precarious position torn between the party and my supporters. After much thought, I have decided that I can’t let down the expectations of my supporters who have reposed faith in me,” Gamlin had said in his resignation letter.

Arunachal Pradesh home minister Kumar Waii on Sunday also criticised state chief minister Pema Khandu for not giving him a ticket for the ensuing polls. He alleged that CM Khandu had done this because Khandu saw him as a contender for the chief minister’s job. Waii was one of the six BJP legislators, including minister Jarkar Gamlin, dropped from the list of 54 candidates announced by the party on Sunday.

“I am out because the CM thinks I am a contender for the CM’s post,” Waii had said after not finding his name for the Bameng Assembly constituency from which he won thrice since the 2004.