At least 67 candidates, including a lawmaker who recently switched from the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) to the National People’s Party (NPP) before filing nominations, withdrew from the fray on Thursday for the upcoming Assam assembly elections, bringing down the total number of contenders to 722, officials said.
Aminul Islam, who won the Mankachar seat in 2021 on an AIUDF ticket, switched to the BNP after being denied the ticket. But on Thursday, the 50-year-old withdrew his nomination papers, according to the Election Commission.
A total of 815 candidates filed 1,389 nomination papers across 126 constituencies in the state. After scrutiny, 789 candidates were found eligible to compete on Wednesday.
“Out of 789 validly nominated candidates, a total of 67 candidates withdrew their nominations on Thursday. Hence, 722 candidates are still in the fray,” the Assam Election Office said in a statement.
The EC on Wednesday rejected the nomination papers of a Congress candidate from Barpeta Assembly constituency in Assam citing discrepancies.
According to the Barpeta district commissioner’s office, both sets of nomination papers filed by Congress candidate, Mahananda Sarkar, for the reserved seat for Scheduled Caste (SC) have been rejected due to discrepancies in Form A, which was submitted along with other documents.
Voting in the single-phase elections for all 126 Assembly seats in Assam is scheduled to take place on April 9, and the counting of votes will be held on May 4.
