Wife of deceased MLA should be elected unopposed, say Arunachal MLAs

Cutting across party lines, members of the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday said Chakat Aboh, wife of MLA Tirongn Aboh who was killed by militants last month, should get elected unopposed from his Khonsa West seat. Suspected NSCN militants on May 21 had gunned down the sitting MLA and NPP assembly poll candidate Tirong Aboh and 10 others, including his son and security personnel, in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh.

Responding to the proposal of the members during obituary reference in respect to Aboh in the house, Chief Minister Pema Khandu said he will convene an all-party meeting soon to work out the proposal to get Chakat Aboh elected without any contest in the by-poll to the seat. "Our efforts will be to ensure that she (Chakat) wins the by-poll unopposed as all the political parties have expressed their willingness to get her elected to the assembly as a tribute to Tirong Aboh, a youth leader with full of potentials," the chief minister said.

Aboh was elected in 2014 as a People's Party of Arunachal MLA and later joined the Congress and served as a cabinet minister in the Nabam Tuki government. He was re-elected in the recently concluded assembly polls as a National People's Party (NPP) candidate.

Condemning the incident, Khandu informed the house that the state Cabinet in its first sitting on June 2 last, decided to hand over the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA)..

(With inputs from agencies.)