An All-India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and two Congress lawmakers, who resigned from the assembly to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have been allotted the ruling party’s tickets for October 30 by-elections in Assam. By-polls are being held for five seats. The BJP has left two seats for its alliance partner United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL).
Arun Singh, a BJP national general secretary, said Phanidhar Talukdar will contest from Bhabanipur while Rupjyoti Kurmi and Sushanta Borgohain from Mariani and Thowra. Kurmi, an influential leader from the tea-tribe community who has won the Mariani seat four consecutive times since 2006, was the first lawmaker to quit Congress in June this year after the assembly polls. He joined the BJP the same month. Borgohain, a two-time lawmaker from Thowra quit the Congress and joined the BJP days later. The two said they were unhappy with Congress’s functioning and wanted to develop their constituencies by joining the ruling party. With their departure, Congress’s strength in the 126-member House came down to 27.
In August, Talukdar, the lone Hindu AIUDF lawmaker from Bhabanipur, quit the party and switched sides to the BJP. The move left AIUDF with 15 seats.
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{{/usCountry}}UPPL has named Jiran Basumatary and Jolen Daimary as its candidates for by-polls from the Gossaigaon and Tamulpur seats. The seats fell vacant due to the deaths of Bodoland Peoples’ Front lawmaker Majendra Narzary (Gossaigaon) and UPPL’s Leho Ram Boro (Tamulpur).
The opposition parties are yet to finalise their candidates for the by-polls. The Congress is planning to contest four of the five seats and AIUDF two. The two parties, which were part of an alliance for the assembly polls, are contesting the by-elections separately.
October 8 is the last date for filing nominations for the by-elections.