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Updated: Mar 19, 2019 23:56 IST

In a setback to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Arunachal Pradesh, two sitting ministers and 6 MLAs of the party joined National People’s Party late on Tuesday evening.

The change has raised the strength of the opposition NPP to 13, the BJP still has 40 legislators in the 60-member assembly.

Arunachal Pradesh goes to polls on April 11 to elect 2 Lok Sabha MPs and 60 new members to the state assembly.

“Two sitting ministers Kumar Waii and Jarkar Gamlin and six other BJP legislators formally joined our party. Former BJP general secretary Jarpum Gamlin and two other former MLAs and 8 other BJP leaders have also joined us,” said NPP legislator from Roing Mutchu Mithi.

NPP, which is heading the government in Meghalaya, (of which BJP is also a part) is part of BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (a group of anti-Congress parties in northeast). But both parties are contesting the Lok Sabha elections separately.

NPP is also part of the BJP-led government in Manipur and the NDPP-led government in Nagaland where BJP is also a partner.

“Those who were denied tickets by the BJP have joined NPP. It won’t affect us one bit. Tickets were given based on ground reality and winning potential of candidates,” said BJP Arunachal Pradesh chief Tapir Gao.

The BJP had released a list of 54 candidates two days ago in which names of Waii and Jarkar Gamlin were missing. BJP state general secretary Jarpum Gamlin had quit the party after his name was not included in the list.