Arunachal Congress Profile and History
Arunachal Congress is the most important of the state level political parties of Arunachal Pradesh. The party was born as a result of resentment against the Congress top-brass leadership in 1998 and its history has continued to be plagued by switch of alliances, fragmentations and shift of political loyalties. However, it still enjoys wide popularity as the biggest of the state level political parties in Arunachal Pradesh, under the able leadership of Sri Kamen Ringu as the president of the party in the state with its head office at the G-Extension in Naharlagun. Arunachal Congress (AC) has won only two seats in the 60 assembly elections, a great loss that is largely accorded to Sri Gegong Apang's rejoining the INC, prior to the 2005 assembly elections.Arunachal Congress (AC) was formed in 1996. It followed a disagreement between Sri Gegong Apang, a veteran congressman and Sri PV Narsimha Rao, then president of the party and Prime Minister of India. Sri Apang moved out of the Congress with as many as 54 MLAs from the 60 member legislative assembly of the state. It joined hands with BJP prior to the 1998 General elections and became a part of the parliament as a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The history of AC has seen many breakaways like the formation of the Arunachal Congress (Mithi) by Sri Mukut Mithi in 1998, which joined the INC in the 1999 elections. BJP ruled the state along with AC thereafter. However, the present Arunachal Pradesh scenario is again transformed with Apang leading his members back to Indian National Congress, while Arunachal Congress still continue to exist as an independent state level political party at Arunachal Pradesh.
