Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, 2009

Arunachal Pradesh Assembly Elections 2009

13 October 2009

All 60 Assembly Constituencies Turnout 72%[1]   First party Second party Third party   Leader Dorjee Khandu Party INC BJP NCP Alliance UPA NDA UPA Leader since 2007 Leader's seat Mukto none none Last election 2004 2004 Seats before 34 9 2 Seats won 42 3 5 Seat change 8 6 3 Popular vote 879,288 89,787 358,098 Percentage 50.38% 5.21% 19.33% Swing 5.97% 2.58% 15.05%

Arunachal Pradesh District Map

CM before election Dorjee Khandu INC CM-elect Dorjee Khandu INC

The Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election of 2009 took place in October 2009, concurrently with the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana. The elections were held in the state for all 60 Assembly seats on 2009-10-13. The results were declared on 2009-10-22. Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu's Indian National Congress party came back to power in the state with an increased majority, winning 42 seats in the 60 seat Assembly.

Previous Assembly

In the 2004 Arunachal Pradesh Assembly election, Congress won 34 of the 60 seats and Congress leader Gegong Apang was elected as the Congress Legislative Party and was sworn in as the Chief Minister.^[2] Apang had defected from the Bharatiya Janata Party just a few weeks before the election. The BJP managed to win 9 seats.

However, in April 2007, 29 Congress legislators formally supported a change of leadership in the state Congress. The dissidents also claimed support from 2 NCP, 1 Arunachal Congress and 11 independent legislators.^[3] Apang, Arunachal's longest serving chief minister, was forced to step down on 2007-04-09 when the Congress legislators elected Power Minister Dorjee Khandu as the new Congress Legislative Party leader.^[4] Khandu was sworn in as the state's seventh Chief Minister by Nagaland Governor K. Sankaranarayanan on 2007-04-10.^[5]

In June of the same year, Khandu's Government received further strengthening when 8 out of the 9 BJP MLAs joined Congress, taking the strength of the party to 41.^[6]

Background

The tenure of the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly was scheduled to expire on 2009-10-24. So the Election Commission of India announced^[7] on 2009-08-31 that the election to the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly would be held in October 2009.

Though Nationalist Congress Party and All India Trinamool Congress were Congress' allies at the Centre, in Arunachal Pradesh, they fought the election against Congress. The BJP was also in the fray in Arunachal, having formed their 1st Government in the North-East after Apang and his supporters had joined the BJP in August 2003.^[8]

Schedule of election

Poll Event	Dates
Announcement & Issue of Press Note	Monday, 31 Aug 2009
Issue of Notification	Friday, 18 Sep 2009
Last Date for filing Nominations	Friday, 25 Sep 2009
Scrutiny of Nominations	Saturday, 26 Sep 2009
Last date for withdrawal of Candidature	Tuesday, 29 Sep 2009
Date of Poll	Tuesday, 13 Oct 2009
Counting of Votes on	Thursday, 22 Oct 2009
Date of election being completed	Sunday, 25 Oct 2009
Constituencies Polling on this day	60
Source: Election Commission of India[7]

Results

Location of Arunachal Pradesh in India

Government Formation

The Congress party won 42 of the 60 seats in the Assembly, including 3 uncontested seats - Dorjee Khandu from Mukto, Tsewang Dhondup from Tawang and Jambey Tashi from Lumla. Seasoned Congressman, seven times MLA and former chief minister, Gegong Apang, and his son Omak Apang both lost the elections. While Gegong lost to Nationalist Congress Party, his son was defeated by Bharatiya Janata Party candidate.^[9] Without the competition from Gegong, Dorjee Khandu was smoothly elected as the Congress Legislative Party leader on 2009-10-24.^[10]

Khandu was sworn in for his 2nd term as the Chief Minister by Governor J.J. Singh at the Darbar Hall of the Itanagar Raj Bhawan on 2009-10-25.^[11]

Number of seats

Source: Election Commission of India

Party	Flag	Seats Contested	Seats Won	Seats Change	Popular Vote	Vote Share	Swing
Indian National Congress		60	42	+8	Note: As of 2 November 2009, the official detailed results have not yet been published by ECI. Hence the popular vote & vote shares are not known.
Nationalist Congress Party		37	5	+3
All India Trinamool Congress		26	5	+5
People's Party of Arunachal		10	4	+4
Bharatiya Janata Party		18	3	-6
Independent		6	1	-12

See also

• State Assembly elections in India, 2009

References

1. "72 pc voter turnout in Arunachal Pradesh". CNN-IBN. 2009-10-13. Archived from the original on 1 November 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
2. "Apang is Arunachal Pradesh chief minister". Rediff.com. 2004-10-13. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
3. "Arunachal CM, PCC chief summoned to Delhi". The Hindu. 2007-04-06. Archived from the original on 2012-11-05. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
4. "Dorjee Khandu to be new Arunachal CM". The Hindu. 2007-04-09. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
5. "Apang out, Khandu is new Arunachal Chief Minister". The Indian Express. 2007-04-10. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
6. "Arunachal: All BJP MLAs except one join Congress". Rediff.com. 2007-06-04. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
7. "Schedule for General Elections to the Legislative Assemblies of Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Haryana" (PDF). Election Commission of India. 31 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
8. Kaushal, Pradeep (2009-08-25). "Apang, his MLAs to join BJP". Indian Express. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
9. Singh, Bikash (2009-10-22). "AP assembly elections: Congress romps back to power". The Economic Times. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
10. "Dorjee Khandu elected CLP leader in Arunachal". Press Trust of India. 2009-10-24. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
11. "Khandu sworn in as CM for second term". The Times of India. 2009-10-25. Retrieved 2009-11-02 – via timesofindia.com.