Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Dec 2: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have chosen their respective candidates for by-polls to Pakke-Kessang and Likabali constituencies.
Biyuram Wahge and Kardo Nyicyor have been chosen BJP’s candidates.
Opposition Congress on Saturday nominated Kameng Dolo and Modam Dini as its official candidates for the by-election to the Pakke-Kessang and Likabali seats.
The elections are scheduled to be held on December 21.
AICC President Sonia Gandhi approved the candidature of Dolo and Dini, said Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) Spokesperson Hina Camder Tok in a release.
The Likabali seat fell vacant after Health & Family Welfare Minister Jomde Kena passed away on September 4 this year. The Pakke-Kessang seat fell vacant after the Gauhati High Court declared null and void the election of Dolo from Pakke-Kessang in the March 15, 2014 polls following an election petition filed against him by BJP nominee and former minister Atum Welly.
Confirming Gensi ZPM Kardo Nyicyor’s candidature, state BJP President Tapir Gao, informed that the decision was taken by the BJP at the Centre after the state core group failed to arrive at a consensus on one particular candidate.
“I had forwarded the names of three candidates to the Centre. It was the Centre’s call”, he said.
Two-time contestant veteran leader, Gumke Riba, and party ST Morcha National Executive Member and two-time BJP district President Tapak Lendo were also in the race for the BJP ticket.
There were also reports of youths vandalising the BJP Mandal Office in Likabali against Nyicyor’s candidature on November 30, claiming that he was only a month-old member of the party after resigning from the Congress party.
The youths had warned that if Nyicyor is given the party ticket, people of Likabali would boycott all events and leaders of the BJP at Likabali.
Tok said that in the 2014 assembly polls, the mandate was given to the Congress in both the constituencies but BJP had created political instability in the state by toppling the popularly elected Congress Government.
Tok said the APCC is confident that the people of both the constituencies would repose their faith in the Congress as it advocates secular system, rising above all differences of caste, creed and religion.