Guwahati: Raijor Dal has announced its revised, final list of candidates for Assam Assembly elections, cancelling its nominees from three constituencies after entering into an opposition alliance in the state and agreeing to a seat-sharing arrangement as part of it.
The final list includes the names of its president, Akhil Gogoi, who was renominated from the Sibsagar seat, and Congress MLA Abdur Rashid Mandal, who had recently joined the regional party, from East Goalpara.
The party candidate for the Bokakhat constituency has not been named in this list, though its first list of candidates had fielded Ratan Dao from the seat.
Another Congress MLA, Sherman Ali Ahmed, who had also defected to Raijor Dal earlier this month, was denied the party ticket.
Raijor Dal has named Rahul Cherty from Margherita, after alliance partner Congress’s nominee Prateek Bordoloi withdrew following his father, Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi, quitting the grand old party to join the BJP.
Among other party nominees are Abul Mian from Gauripur, Anjan Talukdar from Manas, Azizur Rahman from Dalgaon, Mehbob Muktar from Dhing, Pradip Kumar Baruah from Kaliabor, Alok Nath (Tezpur), Dulal Chandra Baruah (Sissiborgaon) and Gyanashree Bora (Mariani).
Dulal Moran has been nominated from the Digboi constituency, replacing Lakhyajyoti Gogoi, who was earlier named for it.
“This is the final candidate list. The candidature of those honourable members, which was declared earlier but their names have not been included in this, is cancelled,” party president Gogoi said, signing the latest list.
He apologised to the aggrieved members, maintaining that “this tough decision had to be taken for the sake of opposition unity to uproot the communal BJP-RSS forces”.
The Raijor Dal had earlier announced its candidates for 13 seats in two lists.
Among those whose candidature stands cancelled are Harikanta Das from Naoboicha, Babul Sonowal from Dhemaji and Ramen Chandra Borthakur from Jalukbari.
The Raijor Dal is now part of a six-party alliance with Congress, CPI(M), Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), CPI(ML) Liberation and Karbi Anglong-based All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC).
Elections for the 126-member Assam Assembly will be held on April 9. Votes will be counted on May 4.
In the current Assembly, the ruling BJP’s strength is 64, while its allies AGP has nine MLAs, UPPL has seven, and BPF has three members.
In the opposition camp, the Congress has 26 MLAs, AIUDF 15 members, and CPI(M) has one MLA. There is one Independent legislator also.
