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Democracy,
Government, Political Parties
Arunachal Pradesh is dominated by the Arunachal Congress, which is headed by the
Chief Minister Gegong Apang. Other opposition parties include the Arunachal Congress (Mithi), Congress (Dolo) and the Peoples Party of Arunachal.
From August 3, 2003, the Government is led by
Shri Gegong Apang.
Shiri Gegong Apang (born July 8, 1949) was the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh.
He was born to parents of Adi descent. He has served as chief minister since August 3, 2003 and also served as chief minister from January 18, 1980 to January 19, 1999.
His most cherished dream was to surpass West Bengal patriarch Jyoti Basu's record as the longest surviving chief minister of any state in the country.
This was shattered, when he had no other alternatives but to resign after losing a trial of strength in the Arunachal Pradesh assembly.
He resigned as Chief Minister after a stint of 19 years in 1999. He was elected leader of the newly formed United Democratic Front, a coalition of his own political party Arunachal Congress and several others, in 2003.
His son, Omak Apang, also took part politics actively within the government constitution of Arunachal Pradesh.
Political
Progression
Though, the history of the growth of political process in Arunachal Pradesh dates back to 1875 when the British-India Government started to define the administrative jurisdiction by drawing an Inner Line in relation to the frontier tribes inhabiting the North Frontier Tract, the area was kept outside the purview of regular laws of the country. Thereafter, the British followed the policy of gradual penetration to bring more areas under normal administration. By the year 1946, the North East Frontier Tracts were reorganized into four Frontier Tracts namely Sadiya, Lakhimpur, Tirap and Sela Sub Agency and Subansiri area and administrated by the Governor of Assam in his discretion. By virtue of the Indian Independence Act 1947, the Government of Assam assumed administrative jurisdiction over North East Frontier Tracts and the Governor of Assam was divested of his discretionary powers. The Government of Assam administered the North East Frontier Tracts during the period 15th August 1947 to 26th January 1950.
After independence, a sub-committee headed by Gopinath Bordoloi was appointed by the Constituent Assembly of India to recommend the future pattern of administration of the North Eastern Frontier Areas. The Bordoloi Committee recommended that since the administration has been satisfactorily established over a sufficiently wide area, the Government of Assam should take over that area by the strength of a notification.
However, for various considerations, particularly problem of communication and defiance, Government of India decided to administer North East Frontier Tracts as "Excluded Area" through Governor of Assam as an agent to the President of India. In the year 1950, the plain portions of these tracts namely, Balipara Frontier Tract, Tirap Frontier Tract, Abor Hill District and Mishimi Hills Districts were transferred to the Government of Assam. In 1951, the units of the tracts were reconstituted again and Tuensang Frontier Division was created which later merged with Nagaland. The remaining portion of the Tracts after the introduction of the North East Frontier (Administration) Regulation, 1954 was designated as the North East Frontier Agency, the NEFA. Thereafter, the administration was brought under the Ministry of External Affairs and in August 1965, it was brought under the supervision and control of the Ministry of Home Affairs. It remained so till the attainment of Union Territory status by Arunachal Pradesh in 1972.
It was only in 1975 that the virtue of the enactment of 37th Constitutional Amendment Act 1975 that the Pradesh Council was constituted as a separate Legislative Assembly and Lt. Governor was appointed as the head of the Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh. The Pradesh Council became provisional Legislative Assembly having 23 members during 1975 to 1978. The first elected Legislative Assembly consisting of 33 members (30 elected members and 3 nominated members) was formed on 4th March 1978, which lasted only for about 20 months. In November 1979, the Assembly was dissolved and President's Rule was imposed which continued till January 1980.
The Second General Election was held in January, 1980. The Third General Election for Legislative Assembly was held simultaneously with the General Election for the Eighth Lok Sabha in December, 1984 and the Assembly was constituted in January, 1986.
The Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh became full fledged State with effect from 20th February, 1987. On the persistent demand of the people of the State, the total membership in the Legislative Assembly was raised to sixty during the General Election in 1990 and thus, the First Legislative assembly of State of Arunachal Pradesh was constituted. Fourth Election to the Assembly was held in March, 1995; That was the Second Legislative Assembly of Arunachal Pradesh. The Second Legislative Assembly was dissolved by the Governor on 27th July 2000, ahead of schedule in March 2000. The third Legislative Assembly headed by Shri Mukut Mithi was constituted in October 1999. From August 3, 2003, the Government is led by Shri Gegong
Apang.
Now, people of Arunachal Pradesh are represented at the Union Government by one MP in the Rajya Sabha and two MPs in the Lok Sabha.
Major
Political Parties
Arunachal Congress
and its Off-shoots
Arunachal Congress is a regional political party in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
AC was founded in September 1996 as a splinter-group of Indian National Congress, when the local party leader and Chief Minister Gegong Apang revolted against the then Congress leader P.V. Narasimha Rao.
Apang took with him 54 members of the legislative assembly (of a total of 60) of Arunachal Pradesh to his new party.
In the Lok Sabha elections 1998 AC won both seats of Arunachal Pradesh.
T he party got 172 496 votes (52,47% of the votes in the state). AC allied itself with BJP and was a founding member of the National Democratic Alliance.
The son of Gegong Apang, who had been elected from the constituency Arunachal West, was appointed a minister in the Centre government.
The successes of AC didn't last long.
Directly after the 1998 elections there was an inner-party revolt. Wangcha Rajkumar, who had been elected to the Lok Sabha from the constituency Arunachal East in both 1996 and 1998 considered that Apang had resorted to nepotism when his son was appointed minister. Five state ministers that had sided with Rajkumar were fired by Apang. One of the
ex-ministers, Mukut Mithi, split and formed the Arunachal Congress (Mithi).
AC(M) was able to gather 40 members of the legislative assembly and Mithi formed a government.
Initially both AC and AC(M) supported the Vajpayee government, but since Rajkumar wasn't allotted a ministerial post AC(M) merged with Indian National Congress ahead of the 1999 elections.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections of 1999 AC ran in alliance with BJP.
Omak Apang stood in Arunachal West (came second with 70 760 votes, 30,07% in that constituency).
In Arunachal East Rajkumar (now back in INC) defeated the BJP candidate.
One reason, its claimed, that the AC-BJP combine fared so badly was that several armed factions (especially the powerful National Socialist Council of Nagaland) in the area worked against them.
The legislative assembly elections same year gave even worse results.
AC launched 38 candidates, but only one (Gegong Apang) was elected.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2004 the political map of Arunachal Pradesh had been redrawn yet again.
July 25 2003 there was a new split in the INC, and a new party Congress (Dolo) was formed.
Apang formed a front called United Democratic Front consisting of himself, Congress (D), an expelled Congress MLA and two independents.
In total Apang was able to gather 41 MLAs around him, and on August 3, Apang was again sworn in as Chief Minister of the state.
On August 30 Apang joined BJP along with his 41 MLAs. Thus BJP controlled a state government in the North-East for the first time.
Arunachal Congress did however continue to exist as a party even after that the founder Apang had joined
BJP. Ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections AC talked about calling for a boycott, as a protest against that Chakma and Hajong refugees had been given the right to vote in the state.
In the end the party did however decide to contest, this time allied with Indian National Congress.
AC launched its new party president, Karmen Ringu, in Arunachal West.
Ringu came second and got 76 527 votes (34,54% in that constituency).
In Arunachal East INC had launched a candidate, that also came second.
In the legislative assembly elections 2004 AC had put up 11 candidates, out of whom two were elected.
The leadership of the party is called Arunachal Congress Working Committee
(ACWC). The organization Arunachal Congress Volunteer Force is probably related to the party.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://arunchalpradesh.nic.in
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