Pema Khandu claims majority
Source: The Sangai Express / TNN
Guwahati, December 30 2016:
After a gap of nearly five months, Arunachal Pradesh is heading towards yet another political crisis.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu, who was temporarily suspended by his party, Peoples Party of Arunachal, for alleged anti-party activities on Thursday, on Friday claimed majority support among MLAs of the ruling PPA-BJP alliance.
Earlier in the day, Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA) announced that it was replacing Khandu with Takam Tagar (Pario) as the new chief minister.
"Pema Khandu is still the Chief Minister and the PPA president has now powers to remove him.
Majority of the 42 PPA MLAs are still with Khandu and all the 12 BJP MLAs have given their support as well," a source close to Khandu said.
BJP general secretary, Ram Madhav, who is in charge of the State, said: "The president does not have the power to remove the Chief Minister.
BJP is supporting Pema Khandu's Government.
The chairman can only do so.
Let's see what happens" .
Khandu is expected to issue a statement shortly claiming support of majority of MLAs.
The PPA has 42 MLAs in the house of 60 .
In July, Khandu replaced Nabam Tuki as the Congress Chief Minister only to dump his party few weeks later and join PPA to form the second regional party Government in the State with outside support from BJP.
In November, BJP joined the Government from inside.