Assam polls: 722 candidates in fray after 67 withdraw nomination

Guwahati: A total of 722 candidates are left in the fray for the Assam Assembly elections after 67 nominees pulled out of the contest on the last day of withdrawal on Thursday, officials said.

Among the candidates who withdrew their nominations are National Peoples’ Party’s (NPP) Md Aminul Islam (Mankachar seat), who had resigned from the AIUDF recently, four of the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) and one leader of the Gondwana Ganatantra Party. The remaining ones are all independents.

The four ASDC members are Kamal Singh Bey (Bokajan), Mandal Enghi (Howraghat), Gulson Bey (Diphu) and Anjoshi Terang (Haflong), officials said.

A total of 815 candidates had filed 1,389 nomination papers across 126 constituencies.

Following scrutiny, 789 candidates were found eligible.

Among the prominent candidates in the fray are Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi, Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia of the Congress, AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal, Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary and several cabinet ministers.

The elections will be held on April 9, and counting will take place on May 4.

Meanwhile, attacking the Opposition, Assam BJP president Dilip Saikia on Thursday alleged that the Congress slogan of a ‘Natun Bor Asom’ (new Greater Assam) is a “dangerous conspiracy” aimed at protecting the rights of ‘Miyas’ at the cost of indigenous people.

He asserted that the saffron party was taking both visible and subtle measures to safeguard the state and its people, and said these efforts would be conveyed to the new generation of voters.

Saikia also said the updated, final National Register of Citizens (NRC) is not acceptable to the BJP in its current format and maintained that it will be rectified by a BJP government if it returns to power after the April 9 state polls.