Village address as father’s name among reasons for rejection of Congress candidate’s nomination

Three Bharatiya Janata Party candidates were on Thursday officially declared winners from their respective Assembly seats in Arunachal Pradesh without a vote being cast.

This followed the rejection of “defective” nomination papers of opponents in two cases and the withdrawal of candidature of rivals in the third.

The winners are Kento Jini from Along East constituency in West Siang district, Taba Tedir from Yachuli seat in Lower Subansiri district and Phurpa Tsering from Dirang seat in West Kameng district.

A reason why the returning officer for Along East rejected the nomination of State Congress vice-president Minkir Lollen was the village address was written in the column that should have had the name of his father Damin Lollen, a noted freedom fighter who died at 104 years last year.

Mr Lollen’s nomination form did not mention his age, constituency name and educational qualification and the Scheduled Tribe certificate was not attached. Barring Bordumsa-Diyun, all 60 seats in Arunachal Pradesh are reserved for STs.

“The case with Toko Yaram, a female candidate of Janata Dal (United), was somewhat similar in Yachuli,” Kaling Tayeng, the State’s chief electoral officer, said.

“Because of rejection of papers, there was technically one candidate in each of these two constituencies. They were thus declared elected unopposed after formalities today, the last day of withdrawal of nominations,” Mr Tayeng said.

“In the case of Dirang, Mr Tsering was the only candidate standing after two of his opponents withdrew their nomination,” he added.

The Congress had won 11 Assembly seats unopposed in the 2014 Assembly election. The candidates for these seats included incumbent Chief Minister Pema Khandu and his predecessor Nabam Tuki.

Political instability saw the Congress government change colours – first to the regional People’s Party of Arunachal and then to BJP in December 2016.