PPA suffers blow in Arunachal after 2 more MLAs join Congress

Itanagar, Sep. 21 (PTI): In a major setback to the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA), the lone regional party in the state, its last two MLAs have joined the Congress before the assembly polls due next year.

PPA MLAs Takam Pario and Markio Tado joined Congress on Thursday, an Assembly notification said here Friday.

With all its MLAs moving out, the PPA has no representatives in the Arunachal Assembly anymore, while Congress now has three MLAs in the Assembly.

Speaker T Norbu Thongdok accepted the switch over under Rule 4 of the Members of Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly (Disqualification on Ground of Defection) Rules, 1987 and issued a notification regarding it on Thursday.

Earlier, seven out of the total nine PPA MLAs had joined the National People’s Party(NPP) on July 16 this year.

This allowed the NPP, a constituent of BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), to have members in the Assembly for the first time.

The ruling BJP now has 48 MLAs in the 60-member house.

There are also two independent MLAs. They are associate members of the ruling BJP government.