The Hindu : Front Page : Apang returns to Congress

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Sunday, Aug 29, 2004

Front Page

Apang returns to Congress

By Our Special Correspondent

Gegong Apang addresses media in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI, AUG. 28. With Arunachal Pradesh getting into election mode, the Congress today took a leap forward by readmitting the Chief Minister, Gegong Apang, and other members of the Bharatiya Janata Party into the party. Mr. Apang, who quit the Congress in 1996 along with his supporters to form the Arunachal Congress, joined the BJP last year after toppling the Congress Government of Mukut Mithi in July.

The Assembly election in the State is scheduled for October 7. The Congress Working Committee member, Ramesh Chennithala, who is in charge of the party affairs in the northeast, made the announcement on the readmission of Mr. Apang and others. Among those present on the occasion was Mr. Mithi, who heads the State Congress State unit, the newly-appointed working president, Nabam Tuki, the State leader and CWC member, Omen Deori, and the AICC secretaries, Imran Kidwai and Sudhakar Reddy.

Describing his return to the Congress as "homecoming,'' Mr. Apang dismissed as "baseless and unfounded'' the charges made earlier by the Congress about the role played by insurgents in toppling the Mithi Government.

With the Congress central leaders, including the chairperson of the Media Department, Girija Vyas, offering no comment, it was left to Mr. Mithi to save the situation by stating: "Let the past be buried and let us look forward for a brighter future.''

Earlier, the AICC leaders asserted that Mr. Apang's return would strengthen the Congress in the border State and the hands of Sonia Gandhi.

Disenchantment

Expressing disenchantment with the BJP, Mr. Apang said: "Having grown on the secular philosophy of the Congress, we expressed our strong reservations about the ideology and policy of the BJP. But we were assured in clear terms that the BJP would be as secular as any mainstream party. But unfortunately the promises turned out to be hollow. The BJP did not give up its divisive policies and programmes.''

He said that in sharp contrast to the broken promises of the BJP, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had been taking interest in the problems of the State without any political considerations. "Both the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, made anxious enquiries about the recent devastating floods in Arunachal Pradesh."

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