Gegong Apang (born 10 January 1947) is an Indian politician from

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 ...

. He served as the 3rd

Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh The chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh is chief executive of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. As per the Constitution of India, the governor of Arunachal Pradesh is the state's ''de jure'' head, but '' de facto'' executive authority res ...

from 18 January 1980 to 19 January 1999 and again from August 2003 to April 2007. He is a member of the

Janata Dal (Secular) {{Infobox Indian Political Party , party_name = Janata Dal (Secular) , party_logo = , colorcode = {{party color, Janata Dal (Secular) , abbreviation = JD(S) , president = H. D. Deve Gowda , founder ...

and was a member 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 ...

before 2016. Apang is the Arunachal Pradesh's longest serving Chief Minister and also the fourth longest serving Chief Minister of an Indian state after

Pawan Kumar Chamling Pawan Kumar Chamling Rai (born 22 September 1950) is an Indian politician and writer who served as the 5th Chief Minister of Sikkim from 1994 to 2019. He is the List of longest-serving Indian chief ministers, longest serving Chief Minister in ...

of Sikkim,

Jyoti Basu Jyoti Basu (born Jyotirindra Basu; 8 July 1914 – 17 January 2010) was an Indian Marxist theorist, communist activist, and politician. He was one of the most prominent leaders of Communist movement in India. He served as the 6th and longest ...

of West Bengal and

Naveen Patnaik Naveen Patnaik (; born 16 October 1946) is an Indian politician and writer, who served as the 14th List of Chief Ministers of Odisha, Chief Minister of Odisha from 5 March 2000 to 12 June 2024. His 24-year reign is the List of longest-serving I ...

of Odisha.

Political career

Gegong Apang started his political career as a member of the Congress Pradesh Council between 1972 and 1975 after passing out from JN College, Pasighat. He became the member of the first provisional Assembly between 1975 and 1978 and served as its agriculture minister in 1977. He was also elected to the first Legislative Assembly of the state in the year 1978 and was appointed its PWD and agriculture minister. Apang won the 1978, 1980 and 1984 assembly elections from Yingkiong-Pangin Assembly Constituency. Later he won the 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2004 assembly elections from Upper Siang district's Tuting-Yingkiong Assembly Constituency of Arunachal Pradesh. Apang was chosen as Chief Minister for first time on 18 January 1980, after getting elected to the assembly for second time. He held the office until 1999, when he resigned, triggered by a no-confidence motion by a split in the Congress Party. He was elected leader of the newly formed United Democratic Front, a coalition of his own political party, the

Arunachal Congress Arunachal Congress (AC) was a regional political party in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. It was founded in 1996 as a splinter group of the Indian National Congress, when the local party leader and Chief Minister Gegong Apang revolted ...

and several others, in 2003. Only a few months later, Apang and his supporting

MLAs A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nationa ...

merged 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 ...

, the first time the BJP had ever ruled a state in north-eastern India. A few months after the BJP led

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 ...

lost the 2004 general election, Apang returned to the

. In October 2004, Congress won the majority in state assembly election, making Apang return as the Chief Minister. He was in office as Chief Minister till 9 April 2007, when Congress MLAs revolted against his leadership under Dorjee Khandu, who succeeded him as chief minister and Congress Legislature Party leader. Mr.Apang, out of four terms as Chief Minister, headed Congress Government for three terms and one term from Arunachal Congress, regional party floated by him in 1996, after differences with the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao over his demand for deportation of the Chakma-Hajong tribals from the tribal state. Apang resigned from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress on 17 February 2014 (party sources said) and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 20 February 2014 prior to Indian general election and Arunachal Pradesh legislative assembly election. On 15 January 2019 he resigned from primary membership of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by saying that "BJP now platform to seek power.". He joined Janata dal (Secular).

Corruption charges

Apang was arrested on 24 August 2010 for alleged involvement in 1000 crore

Public Distribution System The Public Distribution System (PDS) is a food security system that was established by the Government of India under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution to distribute food and non-food items to India's poor at subsid ...

scam. Apang denied the charges and claimed they are politically motivated, though the government under Chief Minister

Dorjee Khandu Dorjee Khandu (19 March 1955 – 30 April 2011) was an Indian politician who served as Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh from 2007 until his death in a helicopter crash in April 2011. Personal life Dorjee Khandu was born in Gyangkhar Village ...

maintained that the investigation was conducted independently without political interference. The scam allegedly involves fraudulent hill transport subsidy bills that were paid without the required financial oversight while he was the chief minister.

Personal life

Apang was born on January 10, 1947, at Karko village in Upper Siang district. Apang is from Yingkiong, the headquarters of

Upper Siang Upper Siang (Pron:/ˈsjæŋ or ˈsɪæŋ/) is an administrative district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in India. It is the fourth least populous district in the country (out of 640). History The majority of the people are of the Adi tribe ...

district in

. He has three wives. One of Apang's sons was kidnapped at gun point in June 2008. Later that month he returned home safely, an unknown person to the Apang family who claimed to be of the same clan of Yadap Apang (Apang's wife) kidnapped him.

References

External links

Apang returns to Congress
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Apang, Gegong 1949 births Living people Chief ministers of Arunachal Pradesh Chief ministers from Bharatiya Janata Party India MPs 1998–1999 People from Upper Siang district People from Yingkiong Chief ministers from Indian National Congress Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Arunachal Pradesh Janata Dal (Secular) politicians People's Party of Arunachal politicians Arunachal Congress politicians Janata Party politicians Indian National Congress politicians from Arunachal Pradesh State cabinet ministers of Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh MLAs 1978–1980 Arunachal Pradesh MLAs 1980–1984 Arunachal Pradesh MLAs 1984–1990 Arunachal Pradesh MLAs 1990–1995 Arunachal Pradesh MLAs 1995–1999 Arunachal Pradesh MLAs 1999–2004 Arunachal Pradesh MLAs 2004–2009