The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has decided to contest 42 of the total of 60 Assembly seats, besides both the two Lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh.

Releasing the first list of 11 candidates for the State Assembly and one Lok Sabha seat here, NCP Arunachal Pradesh unit president Talar Doye said the new national political party was committed to fighting against "corruption and criminalisation of politics" in the State. The new party also committed to working for the welfare of the people of the country as well as north-eastern region, he said.

Claiming that NCP has the grass-roots level people’s support in the entire north-eastern region as proved in the Guwahati convention of the party held recently, Doye said that NCP would not allow any foreign origin person to rule the country. He, however, stated that the leadership of his party had full respect for Sonia Gandhi and her family. The second list containing the names of 31 candidates would be released soon, he said. Toko Kach had been nominated for the Western Lok Sabha seat, while the name of candidate for the Eastern Arunachal Lok Sabha seat would be announced later on, he said.

The prominent among the 11 names released for the State Assembly included former minister Kardo Taipodia (Likabali constituency) who has resigned from Arunachal Congress led by Gegong Apang and joined the NCP recently and another former minister Ngurang Tazap for Kimin-Doimukh constituency.

Another former member of the State Assembly Anok Wangsa has been nominated for Pangchau-Waka constituency. Doye said he had decided not to contest the election so that he could devote fulltime for the party.

A core committee for north-eastern region of the party had been formed with former Assam Chief Minister Sarat Chandra Sinha as its chairman to supervise the election in the region. There would be 14 members in the committee, which included party’s general secretary Purna A Sangma, he said.

AC list: Meanwhile, the regional Arunachal Congress (AC) led by former chief minister Gegong Apang released the first list of 38 candidates’ names for the October 3 State Assembly election to the 60-member House.

Arunachal Congress Working Committee (ACWC) chairman Gegong Apang and working president Kameng Bingy have jointly released the candidates’ list in its party headquarters in Itanagar. Mr. Apang was renominated from his home constituency of Tuting-Tingkiang, his wife Mrs. Yadap Apang from Pasighat West and former State Home Minister Dakloo Nidak from Daporijo constituencies respectively. In all, 13 members of the dissolved Assembly, including nine former ministers of Gegong Apang Ministry, have been renominated to contest this time.