BJP nominee Nabam Rebia files nomination for lone Rajya Sabha seat in Arunachal

ARUNACHAL'S LONE RAJYA SABHA SEAT

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: BJP nominee Nabam Rebia, on Monday, filed his nomination papers for the lone Rajya Sabha seat in Arunachal Pradesh, election for which will be held on June 19, a senior official at the State Election Office here said.

Rebia, who was nominated by the party's central election committee on Sunday as the candidate for biennial elections to the Upper House of the Parliament, submitted his papers to Assembly Secretary K Habung, who has been appointed as the returning officer by the Election Commission, Joint Chief Electoral Officer DJ Bhattacharjee informed.

While polling would be held on June 19 if required, the last date of filing nominations has been fixed on June 9 and scrutiny of papers would be held on June 10, Bhattacharjee said.

The last date of withdrawal of papers has been fixed on June 12.

The election process should be completed by June 22, the notification said adding, polling would be held in the State Legislative Assembly from 9 AM to 4 PM if required, the Joint CEO added.

Mukut Mithi of the Congress is the incumbent Rajya Sabha MP from the Northeast State whose tenure will end on June 23.

Rebia, who represented the State in the Rajya Sabha for two consecutive terms from 1996 to 2002 and 2002 to 2008 as Congress candidate, also served the State as Speaker and Cabinet Minister.

He had won the 2009 Assembly elections from the Doimukh Constituency and again in 2014 (uncontested) with a ticket from the Congress. He served as Speaker of the State Asembly during the tenure of the Nabam Tuki-led Congress government; and later served as Minister of Urban Development, Town Planning, Housing, Urban Local Bodies and Law and Justice in the BJP-led Pema Khandu government.

On September 2016, he was one of 43 MLAs from the ruling Congress who defected to the People's Party of Arunachal (PPA) — an ally of the BJP under the leadership of Chief Minister Pema Khandu.

In December the same year, he along with 33 MLAs from the PPA joined the BJP after the PPA suspended Pema Khandu along with six other MLAs.

The 60-member Arunachal Pradesh assembly has 41 BJP MLAs followed by seven of the Janata Dal United (JDU) members, Congress: 4, National People's Party (NPP): 4, Peoples' Party of Arunachal: one and three Independent members.

The JDU and NPP MLAs have extended their support to the Pema Khandu-led BJP government in the State.  

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