Guwahati: After a two-month political battle, former finance minister and Congress leader Kalikho Pul was administered the oath of office as chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh on Friday.
Arunachal Pradesh governor J.P. Rajkhowa administered the oath to Mr Pul at Raj Bhavan in Itanagar. He took the oath alone. Legislators of both the Congress and BJP were present at Raj Bhavan during the swearing-in ceremony, which started at about 10 pm.
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The swearing-in took place soon after President Pranab Mukherjee approved the Union Cabinet’s recommendation for revocation of President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh. The President’s nod came after the Supreme Court on Friday rejected last-ditch efforts by deposed chief minister Nabam Tuki seeking an interim direction that his party be allowed to prove its majority on the floor of the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly. Earlier, the Union Cabinet had recommended the withdrawal of President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh on Wednesday after Mr Pul, accompanied by 31 MLAs, including 18 Congress rebels, 11 BJP MLAs and two Independents met the Arunachal Pradesh governor and staked claim to form a new government.
Pul, 46, a veteran of five consecutive victories in the Assembly elections since 1995, has been the lone crusader against the alleged rampant corruption of the previous Congress government headed by Nabam Tuki.
Mr Pul, a father of five sons, belongs to a very small community called Kaman Mishmi, which has hardly 2,500 members. An MLA from Hayuliang in Anjaw district in eastern Arunachal that shares a boundary with China, Mr Pul has been a minister for most of the time since he was first elected in 1995.
He began as deputy minister for finance (1995-97), then became minister of state for power (1997-99), MoS for finance (1999-2002), MoS for land management (2002-03), and finally minister for finance (2003-05) before he was made chairman of a high-powered committee and simultaneously adviser to the chief minister for about a year.
In 2006-09, he once again served as minister for finance, then minister for rural works (2009-11), and then health. Between 2011 and 2014, he was also made adviser to the chief minister, then again made a minister in 2014.
In 2015, Mr Pul who was accused to have been conspiring to topple Mr Tuki was not only dropped from the Cabinet but also expelled from the Congress for his alleged anti-party activities in April.
However, Mr Pul went to the court challenging his suspension from the Congress, which was revoked at the direction of the court.
Pul’s challenge is picking of ministers
The Congress, which had 47 MLAs in the 60-member Assembly, suffered a jolt when 21 of its legislators, led by Mr Kalikho Pul, rebelled.
Sources in Arunachal Pradesh’s new ruling alliance of dissident Congress MLAs and the BJP told this newspaper that the newly-sworn-in chief minister’s biggest challenge would be to expand his council of ministers.
However, the BJP, the second-largest constituent of the government, has not taken any decision on joining the government led by Mr Pul and has been extending outside support to the government. Sources in the BJP said central party leaders would take a final decision on joining the government.
