The Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election of 2009 took place in October 2009, concurrently with the assembly elections in Maharashtra and

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ...

. The elections were held in the state for all 60 Assembly seats on 2009-10-13. The results were declared on 2009-10-22.

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Dorjee Khandu Dorjee Khandu (19 March 1955 – 30 April 2011) was an Indian politician who served as Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh. He was re elected in 2009 Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections. Personal life ;Early life Dorjee Khandu was ...

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British ...

party came back to power in the state with an increased majority, winning 42 seats in the 60 seat Assembly.

Previous Assembly

In the 2004 Arunachal Pradesh Assembly election, Congress won 34 of the 60 seats and Congress leader Gegong Apang was elected as the Congress Legislative Party and was sworn in as the Chief Minister. Apang had defected from the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

just a few weeks before the election. The BJP won win 9 seats. However, in April 2007, 29 Congress legislators formally supported a change of leadership in the state Congress. The dissidents also claimed support from 2 NCP, 1 Arunachal Congress and 11 independent legislators. Apang, Arunachal's longest serving chief minister, was forced to step down on 2007-04-09 when the Congress legislators elected Power Minister Dorjee Khandu as the new Congress Legislative Party leader. Khandu was sworn in as the state's seventh Chief Minister by Nagaland Governor K. Sankaranarayanan on 2007-04-10. In June of the same year, Khandu's Government received further strengthening when 8 out of the 9 BJP MLAs joined Congress, taking the strength of the party to 41.

Background

The tenure of the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly was scheduled to expire on 2009-10-24. So the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body. It was established by the Constitution of India to conduct and regulate elections in the country. Article 324 of the Constitution provides that the power of superintendence, dir ...

announced on 2009-08-31 that the election to the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly would be held in October 2009. Though

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party ...

and

All India Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress ( English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cu ...

were Congress' allies at the Centre, in Arunachal Pradesh, they fought the election against Congress. The BJP was also in the fray in Arunachal, having formed their 1st Government in the North-East after Apang and his supporters had joined the BJP in August 2003.

Schedule

Results

!colspan=8, , - ! colspan="2" rowspan="2" width="150" , Parties and Coalitions ! colspan="3" , Popular vote ! colspan="3" , Seats , - ! width="70" , Vote ! width="45" , % ! width ="50", +/- ! Contested ! Won !+/- , - , style="background-color: " , ,

, 2,89,501 , 50.38 , , 60 , 42 , , - , style="background-color: ", ,

, 1,11,098 , 19.33 , , 36 , 5 , , - , style="background-color: ", ,

, 86,406 , 15.04 , , 26 , 5 , , - , style="background-color: ", ,

People's Party of Arunachal Peoples Party of Arunachal, a regional political party in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. It was founded in September 1977 by Bakin Pertin, Oken Lego and L. Wanglat as president, Vice President and General Secretary of the party. Tom ...

, 41,780 , 7.27 , , 11 , 4 , , - , style="background-color:" , ,

, 29,929 , 5.21 , , 18 , 3 , , - , style="background-color: ", ,

Janata Dal (United) Janata Dal (United) ("People’s Party (United)”) abbreviated as JD(U) is an Indian political party with political presence mainly in eastern and north-eastern India. JD(U) is recognised as a state party in the states of Bihar , Arunachal P ...

, 3,584 , 0.62 , , 3 , 0 , , - , style="background-color:grey", , Independents , 12,364 , 2.15 , , 3 , 1 , , - , colspan="8" style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , - style="font-weight:bold;" , align="left" colspan="2", Total , 5,74,662 , 100.00 , style="background-color:#E9E9E9", , 60 , 100.00 , ±0 Source:

By constituency

Government Formation

The Congress party won 42 of the 60 seats in the Assembly, including 3 uncontested seats -

from Mukto, Tsewang Dhondup from Tawang and

Jambey Tashi Jambey Tashi ( – 2 November 2022) was an Indian politician of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Arunachal Pradesh, serving as the MLA of 1-Lumla constituency. He was also a Member of National Minority Morcha, BJP. Tashi had previously been a memb ...

from Lumla. Seasoned Congressman, seven times MLA and former chief minister, Gegong Apang, and his son

Omak Apang Omak Apang (born 11 March 1971) is an Indian politician from Arunachal Pradesh. He was born to parents of Adi descent. He is the son of politician Gegong Apang, who served as the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh between 1980 and 1999 and again ...

both lost the elections. While Gegong lost to

, his son was defeated by

candidate. Without the competition from Gegong,

was smoothly elected as the Congress Legislative Party leader on 2009-10-24. Khandu was sworn in for his 2nd term as the Chief Minister by

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

J.J. Singh General Joginder Jaswant Singh, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC (born 17 September 1945) is an Indian politician and former Army Chief. He was the 21st Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of the Indian Army. He was appointed on 27 November 2004, and took ove ...

at the Darbar Hall of the

Itanagar Itanagar () is the capital and largest town of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The seat of Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, the seat of government of Arunachal Pradesh, and the seat of Gauhati High Court permanent bench at Naharlag ...

Raj Bhawan on 2009-10-25.

References

{{Arunachal Pradesh elections State Assembly elections in Arunachal Pradesh 2000s in Arunachal Pradesh 2009 State Assembly elections in India