In what might indicate another round of instability in Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP has invited the Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA)-led Government in the hilly northeastern State to merge with the BJP by the end of this month.
President of the Arunachal Pradesh BJP, Tapir Gao said on Monday, that he had passed on a message sent by the saffron party's top brass in New Delhi to Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul, who was sworn in as the State's Chief Minister on February this year.
Pul, who had the support of 29 disgruntled Congress legislators, had joined the PPA in March this year. The Government, which had proved its majority in the House on Feb 25, also has support of 11 BJP legislators and two Independents.
However, speculations are rife that the Chief Minister and the Government is under pressure from the BJP for a merger with the saffron party, that recently stormed to power in Assam and is eyeing the other northeastern States to make its presence felt.
The BJP, which had floated a non-Congress alliance in the northeast region-North East Development Alliance (NEDA), had also held two rounds of meetings in the region so far and could manage to win support of at least ten regional political parties from eight northeastern States including Sikkim.
“I have only passed on a proposal from our leadership in New Delhi to Pul. Now it is up to the Chief Minister to take the decision,” Gao said, adding that the PPA or the Chief Minister is yet to respond to the proposal of the BJP.
PPA chairman Kameng Ringu, however, said that there is no such plan as of now. “I am aware of some rumour about the PPA's merger with the BJP. However, I am not aware of any such plan at this moment,” he said. The disgruntled Congress legislators, who had formed the Government in the State in February, had decided to merge with the PPA on their own.
“I hope they would maintain the PPA's stand,” Ringu said, adding that the PPA and BJP, who have been working together in the State, are doing great.
It may be mentioned here that there had been instability in Arunachal Pradesh politics for over three months ever since 30 disgruntled Congress legislators led by Kalikho Pul revolted against former Chief Minister Nabam Tuki since November last year and they had toppled the Government to form a new one in February this year with support from the BJP.