A day ahead of counting of votes, Arunachal Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu told The Indian Express that he would be happy if the Congress won 41 seats. As results for the elections were declared Wednesday, Khandu’s expectations have not only come true, one of his most important detractors within the ruling party, former CM Gegong Apang, whom Khandu had ousted in April 2007, has lost elections for the first time in 35 years, while his son Omak Apang, too, has lost.

Former CM (and currently Rajya Sabha MP) Mukut Mithi’s wife Pomaya Mithi — also a Congress candidate — has lost as well.

Khandu, meanwhile, was elected unopposed for the third consecutive term.

Prominent among those who ensured that the Congress continued to remain in power included PCC chief and PWD Minister Nabam Tuki (Sagalee), Food and Civil Supplies Minister C C Singpho (Bordumsa-Diyum), Home Minister Jarbom Gamlin (Liromoba), Speaker Setong Sena (Nampong) and Forest Minister Newlai Tingkhatra (Kanubari).