The Congress replaced chief minister Nabam Tuki with a party rebel in Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday, a dramatic step that helped diffuse months of political crisis which threatened to end the party’s hold on the northeastern state.
Pema Khandu, 37, will be sworn-in on Sunday replacing Tuki, who resigned shortly before he was to prove his majority on the floor of the assembly. Khandu was among two dozen party MLAs who had rebelled against Tuki, setting off a chain of crises that led to President’s Rule in the state.
The turn of events caught by surprise the opposition BJP, whose 11 MLAs had backed the rebels who toppled the Congress government in January before it was reinstated by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Khandu, the eldest son of former chief minister Dorjee Khandu, is a passionate cricket lover who graduated from Delhi’s Hindu College.
The Congress said it now has the support of 47 MLAs in an assembly with an effective strength of 58.
@Agency report.
