BJP claims two Arunachal seat wins, poll officers deny

The BJP on Tuesday claimed that it has already won two Assembly constituencies in Arunachal Pradesh unopposed, but poll officers in these seats said that this could not be decided until the deadline to withdraw nominations.

Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary and in charge for northeast, Ram Madhav claimed that the BJP candidates have already won in Yachuli and Alo East constituencies unopposed.

"Victory March of BJP starts from Arunachal Pradesh: Sir Kento Jini has won (uncontested) from Alo East constituency," he tweeted

"Another victory also from Arunachal Pradesh: Er Taba Tedir won unopposed from 16 Yachuli Assembly segment.

"These two victories are for Arunachal Pradesh Assembly, which goes to polls together with parliament on 11 April," he said in another tweet.

However, Yachuli's District Election Officer Chukhu Takar refuted the BJP's claim and said that the election officials have extended the last date for scrutiny of nominations due to some problems till Wednesday morning.

"This is not true. We have extended the date for scrutiny from March 26 to 10 a.m. of March 27. So far there are two candidates who have field nominations - one from BJP and the other from JD-U ticket. The scrutiny of nominations will take place on March 27. We are going to make announcements only after last date for withdrawal of nominations is over, which is 3 p.m. on March 28," Takar said.

Similarly, District Election Officer of the Alo East, Swatika Sachan, said that there is no official announcement so far on the winning candidate.

"We have received only one valid nomination in the constituency so far. Scrutiny of nomination was done today but the last date for withdrawal of nomination is on March 28. We can make the official announcement only after 3 p.m. of March 28," she said.

Polls to the 60-member Arunachal Pradesh assembly and the state's two Lok Sabha seats are taking place simultaneously in the northeastern, hill state on April 11.

--IANS

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