ELECTORAL POLITICS AND CHAKMA VOTERS OF ARUNACHAL PRADESH: AN ANALYSIS OF IMPLICATIONS OF CHAKMA VOTERS IN THE FOUR ASSEMBLY CONSTITUENCIES

Chakmas are one of the three refugee groups settled in Arunachal Pradesh that migrated from then East Pakistan between 1964 and 1969 due to alleged religious persecution by their native establishment and the environmental disaster. Since then it has been more than five decades of their stay in Arunachal Pradesh. It is perceived by various civil societies, student organizations, and the general public of the State that these Chakma have a huge number of voters in some assembly constituencies of the State and play a determinant role in deciding the electoral outcome to a great extent thereby reducing Indigenous voters to a minority. This paper attempted to know the strength of Chakma voters across the concerned assembly constituencies of the State from their first enrollment in the electoral roll in 2003 till 2023 and the significance of their votes in determining the electoral outcomes in these constituencies by thoroughly studying, examining and analyzing the data obtained from the office of the chief electoral officer, Nirvachan Bhawan, Itanagar. The study found that at least in one out of four constituencies, the Chakma voters constitute the second largest vote bank and play an important role in determining the electoral outcomes in that particular constituency.