Pema Khandu to take oath as Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister for 3rd term today

Pema Khandu will be sworn in as Arunachal Pradesh’s Chief Minister for the third consecutive term on Thursday at 11 am.

This came a day after he was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party at a meeting. A beeline of top BJP leaders will be attending the oath-taking ceremony of Arunachal Pradesh’s CM-designate, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Health Minister JP Nadda leading the flock.

Khandu, in the recently concluded assembly polls, led the BJP to bag a massive victory as the saffron camp secured 46 seats out of the 60-member state legislative assembly.

WHO IS PEMA KHANDU?

The 44-year-old leader is a prominent face of the BJP in the northeastern state. He began his political journey back in 2016, after the demise of his father, former Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, in a helicopter crash in 2011. Contesting election from his father’s seat, Mukto, he was elected unopposed.

In 2016, he was sworn in as the Chief Minister, succeeding Nabam Tuki. By September, he led a group of Congress MLAs to switch sides to the People’s Party of Arunachal, thereby becoming the CM. Following which, in December, he and his group rejoined the BJP.

In 2019, he was re-elected from the Mukto seat and retained the office of CM.