It’s not only his five marriages that made Gegong Apang a colourful personality in Arunachal Pradesh politics. His political acumen and strong manoeuvring skills also made him the longest-serving chief minister of the picturesque, sparsely-populated hilly state. Apang is currently in police custody in connection with a Rs 1,000-crore public distribution system scam.
He had created another record when he ruled Itanagar: he brought the BJP to power for the first time in Arunachal Pradesh in 2003, when his Arunachal Congress—a rebel outfit of the Indian National Congress—merged with the saffron party.
Apang had landed the Congress party and the UPA government in trouble many a time and in various forms. The man from the Adi tribe started his career in the Congress. He forced the party high command to set up the Northeast Congress Coordination Committee (NHCC)—a one of its kind bloc in the national party — for the seven states. In 1992, at a meeting of NHCC in Bomdilla, Apang ensured that mountain rat, mithun, beef, monkey and deer, almost all local animals, were available on the dinner plate; zealous Congress outsiders had to endure severe stomach trouble.
He single-handedly stalled Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s effort to set up a regional water resources authority in the northeast during the first UPA, toppled the Mukut Mithi government in a 2003 coup, and the entire local Congress brass came into his fold. Apang also signed over a hundred MoUs with private companies for reservoir projects during his tenure. He even handed over a detailed project report for the Lower Subansiri project — prepared by NHPC at a cost of more than Rs 300 crore — for free to a private group.
His dream of surpassing Jyoti Basu’s record of being the longest-serving CM in the country didn’t materialise. Instead, he now has to contend with the nightmare of being in police lock-up.