GUWAHATI: The Assam unit of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has shortlisted possible candidates for the three assembly seats where by-elections are due to be held, state unit chief Bhabesh Kalita said on Monday.
Kalita said the state BJP’s election committee comprising chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, union minister Sarbananda Sonowal, party in-charge Harish Dwivedi and state organisational general secretary GR Ravindra Raju among others met in Guwahati on Sunday.
“We had detailed discussions on the by-election and finalised the list of likely candidates for the Behali, Dhalai and Samaguri seats. Three names of probable candidates from each of these seats have been forwarded to the party’s parliamentary board which will take a final call on the candidates who will get the tickets,” BJP’s Assam president Bhabesh Kalita said.
Kalita added that the parliamentary board is expected to announce the names of candidates within the next few days.
BJP won’t be putting up candidates in the Sidli and Bongaigaon seats, which will be contested by its ruling partners, United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP).
“In 2021, the Sidli seat was won by UPPL while AGP bagged the Bongaigaon seat. We contested the previous assembly polls together and this time too BJP will support its coalition partners in those two seats,” said Kalita.
{{/usCountry}}“In 2021, the Sidli seat was won by UPPL while AGP bagged the Bongaigaon seat. We contested the previous assembly polls together and this time too BJP will support its coalition partners in those two seats,” said Kalita.
{{/usCountry}}Five assembly seats in Assam fell vacant this year following the Lok Sabha polls as two MLAs from the ruling BJP (including a cabinet minister), one each from alliance partners Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL) and one from opposition Congress won the Lok Sabha general elections.
In the Lok Sabha polls, two BJP MLAs, Parimal Suklabaidya, a cabinet minister who represented the Dhalai assembly segment and Ranjit Dutta from Behali, won from the Cachar and Tezpur Lok Sabha seats.
Veteran AGP leader Phani Bhushan Choudhury, who has continuously represented the Bongaigaon assembly seat since 1985, won the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat and UPPL’s Joyanta Basumatary, who was the Sidli MLA, won the Kokrajhar seat.
The Dhubri Lok Sabha seat was won by a record margin by Congress’s Rakibul Hussain, a five-time legislator from Samaguri.