The Bharatiya Janata Party in Arunachal Pradesh on Wednesday elected Pema Khandu as the leader of its legislature party, paving the way for his third consecutive term as the chief minister of the northeastern state.

He will take oath as the chief minister on Thursday, the Hindustan Times reported.

In the recently-concluded state elections, the BJP won 46 out of 60 Assembly seats, while the National People’s Party won in five constituencies. Three seats went to the Nationalist Congress Party, three to independents, two to the People’s Party of Arunachal and one to the Congress.

A party or coalition needs 31 seats to secure a majority in the state legislature.

On June 7, the National People’s Party extended its support to the BJP in Arunachal Pradesh. The Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma-led party is a member of the North East Democratic Alliance, which was formed in 2016 as a coalition of the BJP with regional parties in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim.

Khandu was among the 10 BJP candidates who were already elected unopposed to the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly from the Mukto constituency on March 30 before polling. Voting for the remaining 50 Assembly constituencies and two Lok Sabha seats was held on April 19.

Khandu has been the state’s chief minister since 2016, when he was in the Congress.

“With utmost humility, I accept the responsibility of leading the BJP to another term of development oriented governance in sync with the vision of Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji,” Khandu said in a social media post. “I am grateful to our fellow BJP MLAs for placing their faith in me.”

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