Arunachal Pradesh: Gegong Apang resigns from BJP, cites disappointment with leadership

Arunachal Pradesh's former chief minister Gegong Apang resigned from BJP on Tuesday citing disappointment with the present day BJP leadership.

In his resignation letter addressed to BJP president Amit Shah, Apang wrote: "I'm disappointed to see that the present day BJP is no longer following the principles of late Vajpayee Ji. The party is now a platform to seek power, it serves a leadership which hates decentralisation of democratic decision making and no longer believes that the party founded by, for and of the cadre is only seeking to capture power".

Citing an instance from 2014 state assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh, he accused the BJP leadership of using every dirty trick of the trade to get to the power.

"From issues like grass-root delivery of government schemes to matters like Naga peace talks, Chakma-Hajong issue, amendments of citizenship bill, telecommunications and real-time digital connectivity to peaceful and cordial relations with neighbours like Bangladesh, Myanmar and China, both the party and the Modi sarkar are not addressing the real issues," read his letter.

Apang has served as chief minister for 23 years and was elected as Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) seven times.