Itanagar: Barely 20 days after the United Democratic Front government of Gegong Apang came to power in Arunachal Pradesh after toppling Mukut Mithi's Congress ministry, all the 38 Congress (D) legislators in the new dispensation in an application to Speaker Sitong Sema on August 22 said that they were joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) en bloc.

The Speaker said that he had called the Congress (D) legislators to verify their signatures in the application. "They are coming in ones and twos and in groups."

The four remaining members of the UDF are Chief Minister and lone member of the Arunachal Congress, Gegong Apang, Home minister L Wanglat, who is unattached, besides two independents Indrajit Namchoom and Makeup Dolo.

The development followed three days of closed-door meetings between the Congress (D) MLAs, who had earlier walked out of the Mukut Mithi government on July 27 reducing it to a minority, and BJP in- charge of the North East, V Satish, and BJP spokesman Khiren Rijiju.

Apang when contacted said, "Please wait, you will get to know of the developments soon enough."

PTI