Arunachal Congress exodus: BJP blames Sonia, Rahul; calls for 'introspection'

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has urged Congress party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi to introspect on why they are not able to deal with political crises such as what occurred in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday (defection of MLAs).

BJP leader Shrikant Sharma told ANI, "People have given up on Congress a long time ago, and now, their own people are deserting them because of their foul policies. By continuing to blame the BJP, they are only cementing their downfall."

Sharma also that the Congress needed to avoid training its guns on the BJP every time.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said that his decision to resign from the Congress party with 42 of the 43 MLAs was unanimous, adding that the aspiration of the people of state is very regional in character and it was necessary to have a synergy between the two.

"It was a unanimous decision of all the Congress Legislators to merge with the regional political party, Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA)," Khandu said in a statement.

"We must face the fact that the aspirations of the people of Arunachal Pradesh are very high, and these aspirations are very regional in character. The politics of the state has, therefore, to be in tune with the aspirations of our people all of us, in the true spirit of Team Arunachal," he added.

This is the second time in seven months that the PPA has been gifted a government in the frontier state.

In the 60-member House with an effective strength of 58, the Congress had the support of 47 MLAs, including two Independents, while Opposition BJP has 11 members.

Khandu was sworn-in as the ninth Arunachal Chief Minister on July 17.

In a dramatic turnaround in this land-locked state on July 16, Congress replaced Nabam Tuki by choosing Khandu as the new Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, who staked claim to power on the basis of support of 45 party MLAs along with two Independents.