Gegong Apang Biography

Last Updated – 11 July 2019

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Gegong Apang Biography:

Gegong Apang is an Indian politician from Arunachal Pradesh. He was born on July 8, 1949 in Rumgong, in the West Siang district in Arunachal Pradesh.

He held the office of the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh from January 18, 1980 to January 19, 1999 and again from August 2003 to April 2007. Replacing Gegong Apang, on April 9, 2007, Dorjee Khandu took the oath as the fifth Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh.

Gegong Apang was elected in the 12th Lok Sabha elections and was the agriculture minister from 1977 to 1978. He was also the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh for 19 years from 1980 till he resigned in 1999. He is the third longest serving Chief Minister of India after Pawan Kumar Chamling of Sikkim and Jyoti Basu of West Bengal as of 2019. In 2003, he was elected as the leader of United Democratic Front, which was a coalition between his own political party, the Arunachal Congress and several others. After a few months, Apang merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party along with his supporting MLAs and turned Arunachal Pradesh into the first state in Northeast India which was governed by BJP.

During 2004 elections, the BJP-ruled National Democratic Alliance lost the elections. After few months of this defeat Gegong Apang again combined with the Indian National Congress. When the Congress won the majority of seats in the state assembly elections in October, Apang was elected as the Chief Minister of the state and held the office till April 9, 2007, when Congress MLAs revolted against his leadership under Dorjee Khandu, who succeeded him as the chief minister and Congress Legislature Party leader. Gegong’s son, Omak Apang, is also active in politics.

Apang resigned from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress on February 17, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on February 20, 2014 prior to the Indian general elections and Arunachal Pradesh legislative assembly election. On January 15, 2019 he resigned from primary membership of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) citing his unhappiness about the party’s functioning and said that the party is now a platform to seek power, and has since joined Janta Dal (Secular).