BJP on Arunachal: Congress can’t blame us for every setback

Calling on the Congress Party to introspect on its internal failures after the defection of 42 of its MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh, including chief minister Pema Khandu, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the grand old party cannot always blame the saffron party for every crisis that it creates and suffers from.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader Siddharth Nath Singh told ANI, ''Seven months ago, 25 MLAs left them, but somehow the Congress blames us for that. Then thanks to the Supreme Court, their government was formed yet again and they celebrated, branding us as villains.

''Now, 42 out of 43 MLAs including the chief minister have walked out on them. This indicates a lack of faith in Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

''They never accept when they make a mistake, but it is always the BJP who is held responsible whenever the Congress is in a crisis,'' the BJP leader said.

Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu said the decision to resign from the Congress was unanimous, and added that the aspirations of the people of state are very regional in character and it was necessary to have a synergy between the two.

''It was a unanimous decision of all the Congress legislators to merge with the regional political party, Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA),'' Khandu said in a statement.

''We must face the fact that the aspirations of the people of Arunachal Pradesh are very high and these aspirations are very regional in character. The politics of the state has therefore to be in tune with the aspirations of our people all of us, in the true spirit of Team Arunachal,'' he added.

This is the second time in seven months that the PPA has been gifted a government in the frontier state.

In the 60-member House with an effective strength of 58, the Congress had the support of 47 MLAs, including two Independents, while Opposition BJP has 11 members.

Khandu was sworn-in as the ninth Arunachal chief minister on 17 July.

In a dramatic turn of events in this land-locked state on 16 July, the Congress replaced Nabam Tuki and chose Khandu as the new Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, who staked a claim to power on the basis of support of 45 party MLAs along with two Independents.