Naharlagun, May 3: It will be a battle of youth versus experience for the Arunachal West constituency, elections for which will be held on Wednesday along with the East constituency of the state.

As campaigning ends today, the main battlelines have been drawn: Kamen Ringu of the Arunachal Congress, with almost three decades of experience in politics, pitted against the young Khiren Rijiju of the BJP. “Rijiju is likely to give Ringu a run for his money,” an observer said.

With a total voter strength of 3,94,357, the constituency is spread over 33 Assembly constituencies. However, as in the case of the entire state, the already low profile electioneering has lost much of its sheen with the All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union (AAPSU) boycotting the elections over the inclusion of 1,497 Chakmas and Hajongs.

Though the constituency does not have voters from the community, the issue has had an impact as both Itanagar and Naharlagun fall under the West seat. Both are nerve centres of administration of the state.

The young Rijiju, a law graduate from Delhi University, while accepting the “danger posed by the refugees, especially the Chakmas and Hajongs,” maintains that “it is important to settle the issue amicably and for that, sending a representative to Parliament is necessary”.

“I respect the stand of ‘no solution no election’ taken by the apex students’ organisation, the AAPSU. But an effort without any representative in Parliament may jeopardise the issue itself and the problem may go unrepresented, which would be unfortunate,” he said.

Rijiju, who is also the general secretary of the party’s state committee, is cut up with the Congress and Arunachal Congress alliance for its criticism of the Centre and the BJP government in the state on the issue. “All these years, the Congress MPs have had their say. Give the BJP a chance,” he adds.

However, the Congress-Arunachal Congress alliance is not wasting a single opportunity to attack the BJP, both at the Centre and the state. “The inclusion of the Chakmas and Hajongs in the electoral rolls had been constantly opposed by the alliance, since we believe that it is an encroachment upon our land and we will continue our resistance,” Ringu said.

Ringu, an old friend of chief minister Gegong Apang, is from Naharlagun. He had, however, failed in several attempts to get elected either to the Assembly or Parliament. One of the major forces behind floating the Peoples Party of Arunachal (PPA) in 1978, Ringu failed to win the elections from the Nyapin Sangram constituency in Kurung Kamey constituency in 1984 and 1990. He also lost the polls in 1991 for the Arunachal West parliamentary constituency on a Janata Dal (JD) ticket after the PPA merged with the JD.

A major constituent of the voters in the constituency are the Nishis with nearly 1.5 lakh voters. Ringu’s campaign managers believe that if the Nishis vote for him, then it will be a cakewalk for Ringu. “They have been traditional supporters of the Congress and, therefore, it will be smooth sailing for us if they do the same this time,” said Techi Necha, general secretary of Arunachal Congress.

Apart from Ringu and Rijiju, another candidate who is making an impact is Tadar Taniang of the newly-floated Nationalist Trinamool Congress led by Purno A. Sangma. Also in the fray are Karda Taipodia of the Samajwadi Party and the two Independents, Kido Ingo and Joddik Tali.

There are 1,032 polling stations in the constituency, of which 293 are sensitive and 93 hyper-sensitive.