Three candidates including cabinet minister Jogen Mahan, BJP MLA from Duliajan Terash Gowala and Chief of the United Peoples’ Party Liberal (UPPL) Promod Boro filed the nomination for election to the Upper House.
Assam currently has seven seats in the Upper House of the parliament. Three of the seven seats currently held by Bhubneswar Kaita, Rameswar Teli (Both from BJP) and Ajit Bhuyan of the Asom Gana Mancha are falling vacant on April 9.
The ruling BJP in Assam has reacted strongly against the failure of the Opposition parties to put up a consensus candidate in the third seat for the Rajya Sabha and said that with this, in effect, the politics of Assam has turned almost opposition-less. “The so-called alliance among opposition political parties has now remained merely a topic of discussion in the media.
In reality, there exists neither any political alliance nor any political consensus among the opposition parties of Assam. This fact once again became crystal clear today through the utterly inactive role played by the opposition political parties in the Rajya Sabha election,” said BJP spokesperson Kamal Kumar Medhi.
“The opposition parties did not even come forward to contest for the Rajya Sabha seats that will fall vacant. The Congress not only refrained from contesting the Rajya Sabha election but chose to remain stationed hundreds of miles away from the battlefield.
In other words, in the Rajya Sabha election, the Congress along with all other opposition political parties virtually chose the path of retreat and political escape,” he said. While the ruling party had the required numbers for winning two Rajya Sabha seats, the third seat still presented a clear opportunity for all opposition parties to unite and put up a contest.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said, “We do not have numbers for the third seat, and we asked UPPL to field candidates for the third seat.” Earlier All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) had announced its president Badruddin Ajmal as its candidate and had appealed to the Congress for support to secure the third seat. Ajmal lost the Lok Sabha election from Dhubri in 2024.
