Bhubaneswar Kalita announced as BJP candidate for Rajya Sabha

GUWAHATI: BJP has announced that Bhubaneswar Kalita will be the party candidate from Assam for Rajya Sabha.

The party has made announcements for Bihar, Gujarat, MP, Jharkhand, Manipur, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

Jyotiraditya Scindia has been announced as BJP’s RS candidate from MP.

All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and the Congress have nominated senior journalist Ajit Kumar Bhuyan as Rajya Sabha candidate from the state for the third seat in Assam.

The Rajya Sabha polls will be held on March 26 from 9 am to 4 pm.

Senior journalist Bhuyan has taken an active part in the anti-Citizenship Act (CAA) protest in the state. His active participation in the CAA protest has turned out as one of the major points for AIUDF to consider him as a Rajya Sabha candidate.

The ensuing Rajya Sabha election in the State has gathered momentum with hectic activities among political parties and candidates.

So far, nine aspirants have collected the forms of nomination papers from the Returning Officer for the Rajya Sabha election.

While Bhubaneswar Kalita, Satyendra Prasad Deka, Subhas Dutta and Abdul Rezzak collected their forms on Tuesday, Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, Biswajit Daimary, Kazi Nekib Ahmed, Sapatoon Begum and Moitree Sarma had collected the forms earlier. Daimary has informed the Returning Officer that he would file the nomination paper on Wednesday.

On the other hand, senior Supreme Court of India advocate and convenor of Prabrajan Birodhi Mancha Upamanyu Hazarika has expressed displeasure over senior journalist Bhuyan’s decision to contest the Rajya Sabha poll on the support of the Congress and the AIUDF. Criticizing Bhuyan the senior advocate said, “He (Bhuyan) said that he would contest the election on the support of the (Assamese)nationalistic forces. But how could be the Congress and the AIUDF national force of Assam?” Mr. Hazarika also termed Bhuyan’s decision as unfortunate.

The last date for filing of nomination papers is March 13. The scrutiny of nomination papers is on March 16, and the last date of withdrawal of nomination papers is March 18. The Electoral College has strength of 124 MLAs at present. Two Assembly seats are now lying vacant following the deaths of former Speaker of Assam Legislative Assembly and Sivasagar MLA Pranab Gogoi and Tezpur MLA Rajen Borthakur. The election will be held against three vacant seats in the Rajya Sabha. The BJP has 60 MLAs followed by 23 Congress, 14 each by AGP and AIUDF, 12 BPF and 1 independent. If all 124 MLAs cast their votes on March 26, a candidate will require 32 votes to win the election. The Rajya Sabha election has been necessitated after the seats earlier held by Biswajit Daimary, Bhubaneswar Kalita and Sanjay Singh fell vacant.

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