Arunachal Pradesh Lok Sabha Election 2019 Results: BJP's Kiren Rijiju, Tapir Gao Leading

As the Votes counting underway in Arunachal Pradesh for Lok Sabha, BJP's Kiren Rijiju is leading by 1,40,241 votes in Arunachal West while Tapir Gao is leading by 38,414 votes in Arunachal East.  The election is to decide the fate of candidates including Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, two-time former Chief Minister Nabam Tuki, BJP state president Tapir Gao and former home minister Lowangcha Wanglat.

There are total 12 candidates contesting in the current election from BJP, Congress, NPP, People's Party of Arunachal (PPA), Janata Dal (Secular) and All India Forward Bloc.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma's National People's Party (NPP) is also emerging as a serious player in this election as dissidents from both BJP and Congress have joined the party recently. Eighteen BJP leaders including 15 sitting MLAs joined NPP in March this year. While seven sitting MLAs of Congress also joined NPP. NPP is contesting on Arunachal West.

The far remote state of India has been a battle field between Congress and BJP since 2004. Trends in the previous elections suggest that electoral fortunes in the state turn out to be lopsided, that is, if one party gets majority in general elections, the results for the next election get reversed.

Here are 10 main points:

1. Arunachal Pradesh has two Lok Sabha seats— Arunachal West and Arunachal East. Both are unreserved and rural constituencies.
2. BJP’s Kiren Rijiju and Congress’ Nabam Tuki are contesting from Arunachal West seat. While BJP state president Tapir Gao and Congress’ Lowangcha Wanglat are contesting from Arunachal East.
3. The rural population of Arunachal West and Arunachal East are 74 per cent and 81 per cent respectively while the literacy rate of both constituencies is 67.08% and 63.29% respectively.
4. Arunachal West has an estimated Scheduled Tribe (ST) population of 79.68 per cent while Arunachal East has an estimated ST population of 55.51 per cent.
5. Total turnout in the state was 77.38 per cent in the current election. While turnout of previous three Lok Sabha elections were 78.6 per cent (2014), 68.2 per cent (2009), and 56.0 per cent (2004).
6. Total 617652 voters including 296112 male voters and 321540 female voters casted their votes in this Lok Sabha election.
7. Arunachal Pradesh has been a battle field between Congress and BJP since 2004. Earlier there has been strong hold of Congress in several consecutive elections. In 2014 both parties won one-one seat each.
8. In 2014 election, BJP’s Kiren Rijiju won Arunachal West seat with a margin of 41,738 votes (12.5 per cent). With 1,69,367 votes (50.5 per cent) he defeated Congress candidate Takam Sanjoy who got 127,629 votes (38 per cent).
9. While Congress’ Ninong Ering won Arunachal East with a margin of 12,478 votes (4.7 per cent) in 2014. With 1,18,455 votes (45.3 per cent) he defeated BJP’s Tapir Gao who got 1,05,977 votes (40.6 per cent).
10. Arunachal Pradesh also went on Assembly polls this year simultaneously with general elections.