Nationalist Peoples’ Party names first candidate for 2024 Arunachal Assembly polls

 OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Blowing the poll bugle for the assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh due next year, the state unit of the Nationalist Peoples’ Party (NPP) on Thursday announced the name of its first candidate to contest from Dumporijo constituency, in Upper Subansiri district. NPP state unit president Thangwang Wangham announced during a press conference here the name of the party’s general secretary, Paknga Bage, as the official candidate from the Dumporijo seat for the 2024 assembly elections. The NPP currently has four MLAs in the 60-member legislative assembly.

"Bage was chosen as the official candidate of the party for his performance as a MLA during 2014, dedication, and high energy level to work for the people," Wangham said, appealing to the people of the constituency to support his candidature. Responding to a question as to why the party is in a hurry to announce the name of Bage as its official candidate when the process of election is yet to start, Wangham said that the party wants to give him ample time to do his ground work in the constituency and that people should know in advance that he is contesting, being one of the popular leaders from the area. In the 2014 assembly polls, Bage won the seat as an independent candidate, while during the 2019 elections, he unsuccessfully contested the constituency as an NPP candidate.

On the announcement of the names of other candidates, the party chief disclosed that very soon the party’s candidate appraisal committee, the party’s national committee, and the state’s parliamentary committee would convene a meeting to decide the names of other candidates. The NPP is a coalition partner of the BJP-led government in the state and a constituent member of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA). On criteria for selecting candidates, Wangham said that reserve cadre-based and winning ability would be the criteria for a candidate in the party. "NPP will never encourage money culture in elections," he added while responding to media queries on the use of money power to win elections in the northeastern state. Speaking on the occasion, Bage, while expressing gratitude to the party leaders for reposing faith in him, said that he would uphold the party’s ideology and continue with his half-done work in his constituency.

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