Itanagar,: A fresh political drama unfolded in Arunachal Pradesh after Chief Minister Pema Khandu, who was suspended from the Peoples’ Party of Arunachal (PPA) along with six MLAs late on Thursday, claimed majority support on Friday.

The Khandu government said it had the support of 49 MLAs in the 60-member Assembly. Government spokes-person Bamang Felix said 35 of the 43 PPA MLAs have reposed faith in Khandu. “We have support of 49 MLAs, including 35 from PPA, 12 from the BJP, along with one associate BJP member, and one independent,” Felix said.

“Everything is going as usual and the chief minister is still enjoying absolute majority,” Felix said.

The PPA had late on Thursday night temporarily suspended Khandu, Deputy Chief Minister Chhowna Mein and five other MLAs from the primary membership of the party for “anti-party activities”.

Stating that there was no question of change in leadership, Felix said, “We are looking at the legal aspects of the suspension of seven MLAs, including Khandu.”

“The PPA is not a single-man party. Whatever decision was taken by party president Kahfa Bengia was his own. We are trying to sort out the differences among the party MLAs,” Felix added.

The BJP made it clear that it will “only” support the Khandu government in the state and “will never” support any other chief minister. Bengia said Public Health Engineering Department Minister Takam Pario is likely to be the next chief minister.