The late chief minister Dorjee Khandu was the sixth chief minister of the state who first took over the office on April 9, 2007, replacing the powerful Gegong Apang, who had ruled the state for 23 years.
After the victory of his party in the Arunachal Pradesh state Assembly elections in 2009 he was sworn in for his second term as the chief minister on October 25, 2009.
He was in the Indian Army Intelligence Corps and worked there for more than seven years. He received a gold medal for the meritorious intelligence services rendered during the Bangladesh War.
Later, he was engaged in social activities for village people of Tawang district and looked after their welfare up till 1980. In 1980, he was selected uncontested as the first ASM and worked in same capacity till 1983. In March 1990, he was elected uncontested to the first Legislative Assembly of the state of Arunachal Pradesh from Thingbu-Mukto constituency. In March 1995, he was re-elected to the second Legislative Assembly of the state of Arunachal Pradesh from the same constituency. He became the minister of state for cooperation from March 21, 1995.
Khandu, who died in a helicopter crash, was also instrumental in bringing Tibetan religious leader Dalai Lama to Tawang even after the strong opposition of China.
As a chief minister, Khandu became very popular in the frontier state as his house never had security guards and was easily accessible to people. Moreover, he also succeeded in accelerating the development by mobilising additional resources for the state from New Delhi, besides opening the state for small power projects by signing more than 100 MoUs for small and big hydroelectric projects.