Lok Sabha Election 2019: Arunachal Pradesh to vote today; Congress, BJP, PPA in triangular contest for 2 seats

Arunachal Pradesh will simultaneously vote today for both Lok Sabha (LS) and legislative assembly in phase 1 of the general elections. The results will be declared on May 23.

Arunachal Pradesh which has 60 assembly and two Lok Sabha seats will witness a triangular contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and the People's Party of Arunachal (PPA). The two Lok Sabha constituencies in the northeastern state are Arunachal East and Arunachal West.

There are a total of 12 candidates in the fray. Seven candidates, including one woman, are going to contest from the Arunachal West Parliamentary constituency seat while 5 candidates will fight the elections from Arunachal East Parliamentary constituency seat.

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11 polling stations in Arunachal Pradesh are exclusive to women voters. The authorities have set up 2,202 polling stations when the citizens vote in the first phase of elections today.

The state will witness a triangular contest between the incumbent BJP, the PPA and the Congress. The current Chief Minister (CM) Pema Khadu although is leading the BJP government in Arunachal Pradesh, he has switched his loyalties two times after becoming the CM. Khadu, who started with the Congress, changed his affiliation later to the People's Party of Arunachal, eventually coming the BJP fold. The CM will contest the assembly elections from Mukto.

Big faces fighting the Lok Sabha elections in Arunachal Pradesh include BJP's Kiren Rijiju who is the current MP from the Arunachal West constituency contest from the same seat. The other contenders for the same seat are Nabam Tuki from Congress and Subu Kechi from PPA.

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Whereas, BJP candidate Tapir Gao will fight James Lowangcha Wanglet from Congress and Mongol Yomso from PPA for the Arunachal East constituency. Ninong Ering from Congress is the current MP from Arunachal East.

The notification for LS elections in Arunachal Pradesh was issued on March 18 and the last date of filing nominations was set on March 25.

There are a total of 7,98,248 voters in the state with 3,94,456 men and 4,03,792 women.

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The key issues shrouding the poll politics in the state are Citizenship Amendment Bill, permanent Resident Certificates and political instability. Arunachal Pradesh witnessed a major political crisis in 2016 when President's rule was imposed on the state.

Other states going to poll in the first phase of election include Andhra Pradesh (25 parliamentary constituencies), Uttar Pradesh (8), Maharashtra (7), Telangana (17), Uttarakhand (5), Assam (5), Bihar (4), Chhattisgarh (1), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Manipur (1), Meghalaya (2), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Odisha (4), Sikkim (1), Tripura (1), West Bengal (2), Andaman (1) and Lakshadweep (1). The result for the Lok Sabha election will be announced on May 23.

The polling dates for the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 are: April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19. The voting time for Phase 1 elections will be from 7 AM to 6 PM. 

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