Fresh turmoil in Arunachal as CM Pema Khandu, six others, suspended from party

Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu and six others were suspended from the People's Party of Arunachal on charges of anti-party activities, a media report said on Thursday night.

All of them have been temporarily suspended from the party's primary membership, ANI reported.

Their suspension order is with immediate effect pending disciplinary proceedings, it said, adding Khandu therefore, ceases to be the legislature party leader of PPA.

Khandu had recently expressed unhappiness over the 'resource-crunch' tag used by officials to describe his state, terming it as "misleading".

"We always say, ours is a resource-crunch state. Let me tell you, it's a misnomer. See around us, we have abundant resources.

“Where we have failed is to tap these resources for our economic development," PTI quoted him as saying at an event.

Khandu said the tag has been used so often that it has become a habit and it has come to an extent that people use it with pride.

"We cannot depend on the Centre forever. We have to harness and encash our own resources and remove the resource-crunch tag," Khandu said.

Khandu was sworn in as chief minister on July 17.