Guwahati: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates Rameswar Teli and Mission Ranjan Das filed their nominations at the state legislative assembly on Wednesday.
Teli, a former Union minister and Das, a four-time MLA from North Karimganj, were accompanied by chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Union minster Sarbananda Sonowal, state BJP chief Bhabesh Kalita, and several others leaders from the ruling coalition.
“A senior leader from the tea tribe community, Teli, is expected to win uncontested. Das is a veteran BJP leader from the Barak Valley region who first won the North Karimganj assembly seat in 1991. I think both will win uncontested,” CM Sarma said.
Sonowal expressed similar sentiments and hoped both Teli and Das would represent the state well in the Upper House and work for Assam’s development.
Assam BJP chief Kalita mentioned that Das was given the ticket as a mark of appreciation for the voters of Karimganj Lok Sabha seat from where the party candidate Kripanath Malla won in this year’s general election.
Both Teli and Das are expected to win the polls scheduled for September 3, as no candidate from opposition parties filed nominations till Wednesday, the last date for the same. Congress state president Bhupen Kumar Borah said that the party decided against contesting as they didn’t have the numbers to win any of the two seats.
The two Rajya Sabha seats, both occupied by the BJP, had fallen vacant after former Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal won from the Dibrugarh seat and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa won from the Kaziranga seat in the Lok Sabha polls.
{{/usCountry}}The two Rajya Sabha seats, both occupied by the BJP, had fallen vacant after former Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal won from the Dibrugarh seat and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa won from the Kaziranga seat in the Lok Sabha polls.
{{/usCountry}}He had contested from Dibrugarh and defeated Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) president Lurinjyoti Gogoi, who was the consensus candidate from the INIDA bloc, by a margin of 279,321 votes.
Tasa was elected to Rajya Sabha in June 2019. In the Lok Sabha election, he contested the Kaziranga (earlier known as Kaliabar) seat and won over his nearest rival Roselina Tirkey of Congress by 248,947 votes.