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Team BJP wins both Rajya Sabha seats in Assam as Opposition unity crumbles
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the two NDA candidates, BJP’s Pabitra Margherita and coalition partner United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL) candidate Rwngwra Narzary, won the election to the Rajya Sabha by a huge margin.
GUWAHATI: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies on Thursday won the two Rajya Sabha seats in Assam, dealing a blow to attempts by Congress-led opposition parties to corner one seat.
Despite not having the required numbers for both seats, BJP’s Pabitra Margherita and coalition partner United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL) candidate Rwngwra Narzary won while Congress’s Ripun Bora failed to secure the required votes.
“We won both the Rajya Sabha seats from Assam (one by the BJP and other by UPPL, our partner) by a huge margin of 11 and 9 votes respectively,” chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted.
While Margherita bagged 46 votes and Narzary got 44, Bora secured only 35 votes. One vote was disqualified.
While 43 votes were needed for a candidate to win, with a total of 82 votes in the 126-member assembly, the ruling alliance was short of four votes to win the second seat. But cracks in the opposition allowed it to bag both seats.
Assam’s opposition parties, the Congress, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Raijor Dal earlier decided to field former Congress state unit chief Bora for one seat as a mark of opposition unity and prevent BJP and allies from winning both seats.
While Margherita’s victory was almost certain, with Congress having 26 MLAs (one suspended), AIUDF 15 and one each from CPI (M) and Raijor Dal, Bora appeared to have the required 43 votes needed to win the second seat.
But cracks surfaced in their alliance ahead of the elections with Congress accusing AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal of ‘selling’ 5 MLAs to BJP. This followed an allegation by Ajmal that 5 Congress MLAs could vote for BJP and its allies. Both parties also had differences on appointment of election agents.
On Thursday, within hours of election taking place, Congress suspended its MLA from Karimganj South, Siddique Ahmed, from primary membership of the party discipline and writing ‘one’ instead of ‘1’ as directed in his ballot paper.
The party also wrote to assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary to disqualify the MLA. However, Ahmed dismissed the allegations and said he will approach party high-command and court for reprieve.
Earlier Congress alleged the 5 BJP MLAs violated rules during voting, by publicly displaying their ballot papers, and urged the returning officer for the election to cancel their votes. The ECI, however, dismissed the charges.
“We have suspended Ahmed from primary membership and sought his disqualification from assembly. And instead of supporting our candidate, AIUDF betrayed us and our candidate,” said state Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah.
Congress also alleged that its suspended MLA Sashi Kanta Das, violated the party’s whip and voted in favour of the BJP and UPPL candidates and asked the returning officer to cancel his vote.
“The voting showed that Congress couldn’t keep its flock together. But they are trying to shift the blame. All 15 of our MLAs voted for Bora as decided earlier,” said AIUDF organising secretary Md. Aminul Islam.
