Arunachal: BJP Minister Says Panchayat Seats Where BJP Loses Won't Get Govt Schemes
New Delhi: Arunachal Pradesh minister Ojing Tasing has stirred a row after claiming at a campaign rally that those panchayat seats where the Bharatiya Janata Party loses will be denied welfare schemes.
Tasing, the state’s panchayat and rural development minister, was campaigning for local body polls in the Lower Diband Valley district on December 3, when he said, “Government schemes will not go to those panchayat segments where the BJP is defeated…I do what I say.”
In a video shared widely, he is heard reiterating his point.
“I don’t believe in beating around the bush. The panchayat segments where the BJP candidates lose will not get any scheme. As the panchayati raj minister, I mean what I say,” he is seen saying in a video. Tasing was campaigning for the party’s zila parishad candidate in Roing.
Subsequently, the video where he is seen making the remark was shared widely on the internet, sparking a huge row between the Congress and the ruling BJP.
Local body elections are scheduled to take place on December 15, 2025. The BJP has already won 58 of the 245 zila parishad seats and four of the 20 wards in the Itanagar Municipal Corporation uncontested.
Congress lashed out at the minister’s remark and called it “blatant and unlawful”, and has filed a case with the state’s election commission against Tasing. It said that Tasing had blatantly violated the Model Code of Conduct and Section 123 (prevention of undue influence and threats) of the 1951 Representation of the People Act.
“Threatening voters with denial of development if they do not vote for the BJP is a direct attack on democracy, federalism, and the rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution of India,” Congress said, while asking Chief Minister Pema Khandu to drop Tasing from his council of ministers.
The state unit of the Congress has demanded an apology and immediate resignation of Tasing . “Such a statement is also an insult to the people of the State, as government funds belong to the people, not to any political party,” it said, while calling the remark “unconstitutional” and “undemocratic”.
State Election Commission Secretary Taru Talo said that he has asked for a report on the matter from the district deputy commissioner.
Tasing has not commented on the issue as yet.
Meanwhile, the state BJP leaders said that the remark was the minister’s personal opinion and the party didn’t concur with his view.
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