The Congress party in Arunachal is committing several blunders over ticket distribution, starting with the distribution of ticket for the Lok Sabha election, wherein the party issued the ticket to a reluctant Nabam Tuki by ignoring Jarjum Ete. After being denied the ticket, Ete is now contesting from the JD(S), and the division of opposition votes is expected to give an edge to current MP and MoS for Home Kiren Rijiju. Now with the legislative assembly election, the party has goofed up its list of candidates. The lists issued by the All India Congress Committee and the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) differed, and it created confusion among the candidates.
Some of the candidates have expressed strong displeasure with the conduct of APCC president Takam Sanjoy and even accused him of working against the interests of the party. The factionalism in the party is expected to severely hurt the prospects of the Congress. Even when many sitting BJP MLAs were denied tickets they preferred to join parties like the NPP and the JD(U) but not the Congress. The party is no longer seen as an attractive alternative by the majority of present leaders of the state. One has to wait for the election results to see how the Congress performs in the state, but there is no denying that poor ticket distribution has badly hurt the image of the party. They are fighting against the mighty BJP, which is ruling in Arunachal and also at the Centre. Their best chance of winning the elections would have been by smartly distributing tickets to the winnable candidates.