‘Lekang - only constituency where non-tribals hold the key’

Mahadevpur: Diganta Moran does not have the right to purchase land in Arunachal Pradesh where he was born and brought up, but he has the right to vote.

Moran is a non-tribal voter from the Lekang assembly seat in eastern Arunachal Pradesh. It is the only assembly seat in the northeastern state where non-tribals hold the key.

“Permanent Residence Certificate (PRC) is quite a contentious issue here, but non-tribal voters here are respected by all candidates who contest from the constituency, and that’s the positive side,” he said. Of the 20,831 voters in this assembly constituency, an overwhelming majority of around 18,000 are not tribals.

Among the non-tribal living here are Morans, Ahoms, Deoris, Adivasi, Kachari and members of other groups of Assamese origin. In local parlance, the tea tribes are known as Adivasi.