The BJP legislature party leader, Pema Khandu, was sworn in as the third-time Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh at Dorjee Khandu Convention Centre, Itanagar. The Governor Lt Gen (Retd) KT Parnaik took the salute and also administered the oath of office and secrecy.
The outgoing Deputy CM Chowna Mein, also sworn in today, was in the previous governments led by Khandu since 2016. Besides, ten other cabinet ministers of the new council of ministers also took oath under the Parnaik-led government, out of which eight are new faces. It is composed of minister Dasanglu Pul, the only women minister, and others, including minister PD Sona, Mama Natung, Kento Jini, GD Wangsu, Biyuram Wahge, Nyato Dukam, Wangki Lowang, Balo Raja, and Ojing Tasing.
Apart from this, several other important personalities like BJP national president & Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Sikkim’s newly elected CM Prem Singh Tamang, and Arunachal Pradesh Lok Sabha members Kiren Rijiju and Tapir Gao were part of the event.
Earlier on Wednesday, it was declared later that Pema Khandu had been nominated unanimously as the BJP legislative party leader. In the elections for the assembly, the BJP won 46 out of 60 seats, of which 10 candidates, including Khandu and Mein, got elected undoped.
Pema Khandu’s political career started after the unfortunate demise of his father, Dorjee Khandu, former congress chief leader and CM of Arunachal Pradesh, in the year 2011 in a helicopter crash. Born in Pasighat in the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh, Khandu is a 1982 graduate in History from Delhi’s Hindu College. He was initially a cabinet minister under the Congress government headed by Jarbom Gamlin before becoming the Chief Minister after five years.
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