In a major setback to the Janata Dal United in Arunachal Pradesh, the party's lone party MLA Techi Kaso joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday.

With this, the strength of the ruling BJP in the 60-member house has risen to 49.

Kaso joined the BJP in the presence of the party's national president JP Nadda in Delhi.

State Assembly Deputy Speaker Tesam Pongte accepted the merger of Kaso, who represents the Itanagar Assembly Constituency, with the BJP.

The JD(U), led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, won seven of the 15 seats it contested in the 2019 Assembly elections and emerged as the second-largest party after the BJP, which had bagged 41 seats.