Bypolls: Kalikho Pul’s youngest wife likely to be joint candidate of PPA, BJP

The BJP confirmed it would be a joint candidate. But Dusanlu claimed that both PPA and BJP knew she would contest the polls.

GUWAHATI: Dusanlu, the youngest of former Chief Minister Kalikho Pul’s three wives, is likely to be fielded by Arunachal’s ruling alliance partners—the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) and the BJP—as their joint candidate in the November 19 bypoll.

“We (PPA) have decided that one of Pul’s three wives should be the joint candidate of the PPA and BJP. We will soon sit together with them (BJP) and take a call,” PPA chairman Kamen Ringu told Express.

“As regards the choice of candidate, we have left it to Pul’s three wives. They have to decide who among them will contest and under the banner of which party,” he said.

But Dusanlu claimed that both the PPA and BJP knew she would contest the polls.

“They know I am the one who will contest the polls. I have already started the  groundwork,” she told Express.

The BJP confirmed it would be a joint candidate. “It will be a joint candidate since the BJP and PPA are in the alliance. The chief minister is away in Tawang. Let him return. We will discuss it and decide,” BJP state president Tapir Gao said.

The Congress has not taken any decision yet on whether to contest the polls, the party’s state unit chief Padi Richo said.

The bypoll for the Hayuliang Assembly seat was necessitated after Pul was found hanging at his official residence in Itanagar on August 9. A forensic report, submitted last week, confirmed the initial suspicion that he committed suicide. Dusanlu said her family would soon collect a copy of the forensic report
from the police.

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