Aalo, Oct. 11: Gegong Apang has a dream: to be chief minister again and break Jyoti Basu’s Indian record of 23 years and five months in the top job.

Which is why, two days before the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly elections, the 70-year-old candidate from the Tuting-Yingkiong frontier constituency is aiming barbs not at his formidable poll opponents: the NCP’s Alo Libang and the BJP’s Katan Komboh.

Instead, he is targeting his rivals for the hot seat in the party, especially outgoing chief minister Dorjee Khandu, who has already won uncontested from Mukto for the third time in a row.

“Winning uncontested can be with money power or through manipulation. We should have a clean image,” Apang told The Telegraph over the phone while travelling house to house on the last day of campaigning.

“I am not saying that he (Khandu) is doing that,” he quickly added. “But in a healthy democracy, competition is a must.”

“Competition”, of course, refers to the one for the chief minister’s post. The Congress has not declared Khandu as its candidate for the job again, thus opening the door for other hopefuls to throw their hat in the ring.

So Apang, sidelined after 22 years and eight months as chief minister in two stints — nine months less than Basu’s continuous tenure in Bengal — is hoping again.

One of those in the race is state Congress chief Nabam Tuki. Another is Apang’s old rival Mukut Mithi, who had ended Apang’s first stint of exactly 19 years as chief minister in January 1999.

Mithi was chief minister from January 1999 till August 2003 before Apang snatched the crown back again, as leader of an NDA coalition, and ruled a further three years and eight months. Another contender could be the young and ambitious Khiren Rijiju, a former BJP member. And, of course, Khandu, who has said he is contesting for the last time and whom Apang has been targeting relentlessly.

“In my time, there was no law-and-order problem and I was known for transparency,” Apang claimed. “The (party) leadership also sees the academic side, law-and-order situation, etc. I leave everything to the high command to decide, one has to be worthy of it (the chief minister’s post).”

Apang, however, seems to be off the party’s radar screen as of now. He had been absent when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Pasighat on October 3 although his son Omak Apang was present.

“I was inaccessible as I was campaigning deep inside the constituency,” Apang said. But sources said even Omak, candidate from East Siang district, had not received much attention or help from the party.

Apang’s career — punctuated by defections from the Congress to the Arunachal Congress to the BJP and back to the Congress again — mirrors those of his seniors from Nagaland and Manipur, former chief ministers S.C. Jamir and Rishang Keishing.

Jamir is now Maharashtra governor and Keishing is out of the news, but Apang has not given up.

Would he call it quits if he loses this election? “It will depend on what people tell me,” he said.