GUWAHATI: Several political heavyweights, including ministers and party leaders, filed their papers on Monday, the last day for filing nominations for the Assam Assembly next month.
Voting in the single-stage election is scheduled to take place on April 9.
Among those who filed nominations on Monday were BJP ministers Ranoj Biju (Dhemaji), Jayanta Malla Baruah (Nalbari), Chandra Mohan Patwari (Tihu) and Bimal Bora (Tengkung).
Senior Cabinet Minister and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) president Atul Bora, and his party colleague and minister Keshab Mahanta, have filed nominations for Bokakhat and Kaliapur seats respectively. AGP, is a partner in the BJP-led coalition government in Assam.
Former Congress state president Bhupen Kumar Bora, who joined the BJP last month, has filed nomination from the Bihpuria seat.
Congress state unit president Gaurav Gogoi has filed nomination papers for the Jorhat seat. The 43-year-old, who is also a Lok Sabha MP from the same constituency (Jorhat), will face former Assembly Speaker and BJP MLA, Hitendra Nath Goswami.
“The people of Assam hope for a new Assam… We want to bring about a change in that,” Gogoi said before submitting the papers.
The focus was also on rebels who changed sides or filed nominations as independent candidates after being denied party tickets. Among them was Nandita Jarlosa, the BJP minister in the current government who resigned from the party on Sunday after she was denied a ticket. She filed her nomination on Monday as a congressional candidate for the Half Long seat, which she won in 2021.
Jarlosa was the only BJP minister in the coalition to be denied a ticket. This time, the party nominated Rupali Langthasa for the seat reserved for tribal (ST) candidates—the move apparently angered Jarlosa, who held the mines, minerals and tribal beliefs ministerial portfolios in the Cabinet.
In Sibsagar, the BJP surprised by fielding Koshul Duwari on Monday after he threatened to contest as an independent. The party had earlier left the seat to an AGP ally who fielded Pradeep Hazarika against the incumbent MLA, Akhil Gogoi, president of the Raijor Dal, a member of the six-party opposition alliance led by the Congress. Now there could be a “friendly contest” between the BJP and the AGP for the seat unless Hazarika withdraws his candidature.
In Guwahati’s prestigious Dispur seat, Jayanta Das, who resigned from the BJP after being denied a ticket in favor of Congress newcomer Pradyut Bordoloi, has filed his nomination as an independent. “Others may have muscle power, but I will win because the power of the crowd is with me,” Das said before submitting his papers.
There was speculation that the incumbent BJP candidate from Dispur, Atul Bora, who was upset about being denied a ticket, and West Guwahati (now Central Guwahati after demarcation) MLA from AGP, Ramendra Narayan Kalita, who also did not get the nod, may enter the contest from the two seats as independents.
However, the two senior leaders decided not to file nominations, apparently at the request of Prime Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and other BJP leaders who met them to explain the electoral situation.
The saffron party managed to appease another MLA, Amiya Kumar Bhuyan, who did not get the ticket for the Bhipuria seat, which was given to another Congress MLA, Bhupen Kumar Bora. “Bhuyan has been selected as the vice president of the state unit of BJP. In the coming days, we will give him more responsibilities,” CM Sarma said. Bhuyan, who was planning to contest as an independent, decided against it after the promotion.
In Titapur, Congress MP Bhaskar Jyoti Baruah resigned from the party on Monday and filed his nomination as an independent. Barua was upset that the party chose to give the ticket to Pran Karmi instead of him this time.
On Sunday, the Assam unit of the Congress issued a circular stating that anyone who joins another party or contests as an independent after their ticket is rejected will face automatic suspension from the party for three years. Any party member directly or indirectly associated with such candidates will also face a three-year ban, the circular said.
