The Janata Dal United (JDU) announced its Lok Sabha candidate from Arunachal Pradesh unilaterally on Wednesday without consulting any of its INDIA partners and blaming the Congress for the decision.
The announcement came at a time JDU national president and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was reportedly sulking and avoiding the Congress for further
talks about the Opposition alliance.
“The JDU has decided that Ruhi Tangung, president of the state unit in Arunachal Pradesh, will be the party’s candidate from the Arunachal Pradesh (West) parliamentary constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha election,” JDU general secretary and MLC Afaque Ahmad Khan said in a media communiqué.
“Our party shall also contest the Assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh, which is scheduled to be held concurrently with the Lok Sabha polls. The announcement is being made as directed by JDU national president Nitish Kumar,” Khan added.
BJP leader and Union minister Kiren Rijiju represents the Arunachal Pradesh (West) constituency in the Lok Sabha. He had defeated Congress candidate Nabam Tuki by 1.75 lakh votes in the 2019 general elections. He had won the seat in 2014, too.
The JDU will contest the Lok Sabha polls for the first time in Arunachal Pradesh. It had contested Assembly elections there in 2019, winning seven out of the 60 seats. However, all the winning candidates were poached by the BJP, which is in power there with Pema Khandu as the chief minister.
Asked about the reasons behind the announcement without taking the allies into confidence, especially at a juncture when INDIA is expected to finalise seat sharing, Khan blamed the Congress for it.
“The Congress should be questioned about this. It should have considered consulting the allies, but it announced its decision to contest the Arunachal Pradesh (East) Lok Sabha constituency around a month ago without doing so. We would have waited for seat sharing had it not made the announcement,” Khan told The Telegraph.
He asserted that the JDU was a force to reckon with in the northeastern state and had performed well in the panchayat and municipal elections there apart from the Assembly polls. He also pointed out that the Congress had won just four seats in the legislature there in the state polls.
Sources in the Congress said that Nitish was avoiding its top leaders even as talks about INDIA’s convener post being offered to him gained momentum.
“Our high command has been trying to consult him since January 1 but has not succeeded till now. He is either very busy or is avoiding them. We are just hoping that everything turns out well,” a senior Bihar Congress leader told this newspaper.
Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee president and Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Prasad Singh heaped praise on Nitish and his suitability for the position of INDIA convener.
“Nitish had started the work to bring the Opposition on one platform and INDIA took shape. He has all the capabilities needed (for the convener’s post). Nobody can question his maturity and political acumen,” Singh told reporters on Wednesday.
Asked about talks between the Congress high command and Nitish, Singh said: “It is scheduled. It is a routine matter. It may happen today (Wednesday), though I will not be a participant in it.”
The Congress leader also asserted that there was “no issue that cannot be resolved”.
Nitish, who has been the architect of INDIA, has felt ignored and sidelined and minced no words in sharing his feelings at a JDU national executive in Delhi on December 29. He spent several minutes of his speech criticising the Congress and citing examples to show how his contributions were not being recognised.
Nitish also floated a question about the future course of action among the party leaders in such a situation. The turn of events alarmed the Congress and sources said that it was now trying to offer the position of INDIA’s convener to him as a sop.
