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Arunachal Congress also for poll boycott
March 24, 2004 17:55 IST
The vexed Chakma-Hajong refugee issue came to the fore again on Wednesday with the opposition Congress stating that it would boycott the Lok Sabha polls if other political parties also did so.
The All Arunachal Pradesh Student Union (AAPSU) had called for the poll boycott to protest against the Election Commission's order for inclusion of Chakma-Hajong refugees in the state's electoral rolls.
In a press statement in Itanagar, party spokesman Takam Sanjoy said that the Congress endorsed the statement of its Rajya Sabha member Nabam Rebia on poll boycott and challenged the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to spell out its stand on the refugee issue.
Rebia had on March 21 said that the people should rise above party politics and oppose tooth and nail the Election Commission's decision 'taken in total connivance with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre'.
"Now is the time for the people of the state to decide whether sending two representatives to the Lok Sabha is more important than selling out the state to the refugees who will be the masters of our destiny tomorrow because the influx will change the demographic pattern of Arunachal," he had said.
Sanjoy, a former AAPSU president, said the Congress is yet to declare its candidates for the two parliamentary seats in the state and demanded a full-fledged public debate on the refugee issue. He accused the BJP, which has announced the names of its candidates, of double speak on the issue.