Arunachal Congress (AC) was a regional

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n state of

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

. It was founded in 1996 as a splinter group of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

, when the local party leader and Chief Minister Gegong Apang revolted against the then Congress leader P.V. Narasimha Rao.

History

Apang took with him 54 members of the legislative assembly of a total of 60 of

to his new party. In the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

elections in 1998 AC won both seats of Arunachal Pradesh. The party received 172 496 votes (52,47% of the votes in the state). AC allied itself with 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. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP) and was a founding member of the

National Democratic Alliance The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan'') is an Indian big tent Political group, multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

. Omak Apang the son of Gegong Apang, who had been elected from the constituency Arunachal West was appointed a minister in the Centre government.

Split

The successes of AC didn't last long. Directly after the 1998 elections there was a revolt within the party. Wangcha Rajkumar, who had been elected to the

from the constituency Arunachal East in both 1996 and 1998, accused Apang of resorting to nepotism when his son was appointed minister. Five state ministers that had sided with Rajkumar were fired by Apang. One of the ex-ministers, Mukut Mithi, split and formed the Arunachal Congress (Mithi). AC(M) was able to gather 40 members of the legislative assembly and Mithi formed a government. Initially both AC and AC(M) supported the Vajpayee government, but since Rajkumar wasn't allotted a ministerial post AC(M) merged with the

ahead of the 1999 elections. Ahead of the

elections of 1999 AC ran in alliance with BJP. Omak Apang stood in Arunachal West (came second with 70 760 votes, 30,07% in that constituency). In Arunachal East Rajkumar now back in INC defeated the BJP candidate. One reason, it claimed, that the AC-BJP combine fared so badly was that several armed factions especially the powerful

National Socialist Council of Nagaland The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) is a Naga militant and separatist group operating mainly in Northeast India, northeastern part of India, with minor activities in northwest Myanmar. The main aim of the organisation is reportedly ...

in the area worked against them. The legislative assembly elections the same year gave even worse results. AC launched 38 candidates, but only one (Gegong Apang) was elected. In total the party got 68 645 votes (16,68% of the votes in the state). Ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections the political map of

had been redrawn yet again. 25 July 2003 there was a new split in the INC, and a new party

Congress (Dolo) Congress (Dolo), a group that split away from Indian National Congress in Arunachal Pradesh. Congress (D) was founded July 25, 2003 by Kameng Dolo. Together with Gegong Apang of Arunachal Congress, Congress (D) formed a state government. On Augu ...

was formed. Apang formed a front called the United Democratic Front consisting of himself, Congress (D), an expelled Congress MLA and two independents. In total Apang was able to gather 41 MLAs around gum, and on 3 August Apang was again sworn in as Chief Minister of the state. On 30 August Apang joined BJP] and took with his 41 MLAs. Thus BJP controlled a state government in the North-East for the first time. Arunachal Congress did however continue to exist as a party even after that the founder Apang had joined BJP. Ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections AC talked about calling for a boycott, as a protest against that Chakma people, Chakma and Hajong refugees had been given the right to vote in the state. In the end the party did however decide to contest, this time allied with Indian National Congress. AC launched its new party president, Kamen Ringu, in Arunachal West. Ringu came second and got 76 527 votes (34,54% in that constituency). In Arunachal East INC had launched a candidate, who also came second. In the legislative assembly elections in 2004 AC had put up 11 candidates, out of whom two were elected. The leadership of the party is called Arunachal Congress Working Committee (ACWC). The organization Arunachal Congress Volunteer Force is probably related to the party. Just before the 2009 Assembly election, Arunachal Congress merged with Indian National Congress.

List of Chief & Union Ministers

Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh

Members of Parliament

Elected Members of Legislative Assembly

References