BJP not to bow down to any threat: Rijiju

Itanagar, June 06 (UNI) Terming the recent defection of eight party legislators to Congress as 'opportunism', the BJP in Arunachal Pradesh today said that the party would not cow down to such development and emerge as a strong force in the near future.

Addressing a joint press conference here Lok Sabha MP Kiren Rijiju and party's North East organisational-in-charge P Chandrashekhar Rao said the defection had not affected the party and people would be the deciding factor of their fate in the next assembly elections.

''We will continue to perform the role of strong opposition even with a lone representative'', Rijiju said.

Responding to a questions on whether the party would accept those defected MLAs if they were willing to contest the next elections under BJP tickets, he stated that it would be done after strict screening and scrutiny.

''We cannot close our doors but we will have to be selective,'' he added.

In a swift political development on Monday last, eight of the total nine BJP legislators joined the Congress serving the biggest blow to the saffron brigade in the North Eastern region as the party boasted of having the highest number of MLAs of the region in this tribal state.

With this defection, the strength of the BJP had reduced to one, while ruling Congress swelled to 41.

The Arunachal Congress has two legislators, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) one, one unattached and 14 Independents in the 60-member house.

UNI