BJP MLAs Dilip Kumar Paul and Shiladitya Dev quits party after being denied tickets for assembly polls

GUWAHATI: Following denial of poll tickets by the Bhartiya Janata Party BJP two legislators, former Deputy Speaker Dilip Kumar Paul and Shiladitya Dev resigned from the party on Wednesday.

Soon after the announcement of the first list of candidates, resentment emerged within the party following which several leaders resigned from the party.

Sitting Silchar MLA Dilip Paul will now contest as an independent candidate. On the other hand, BJP will now field Dipayan Chakraborty for the Silchar constituency.

It needs to be mentioned here that Paul who has been elected as a two-time MLA from the Silchar Constituency, in 2016 was unanimously elected as the Deputy Speaker of the Assam Assembly. However, in 2018, in a letter written to CM Sarbananda Sonowal, he requested him to relieve him from the post of Deputy Assembly Speaker as he was "not comfortable with the post".

Reportedly, Paul alleged Silchar Lok Sabha MP Rajdeep Roy of hatching a conspiracy against some leaders in the party.

Meanwhile, after the announcement of the candidate for the Hojai constituency, Shiladitya Dev also announced his resignation from the party. After dropping the sitting Hojai MLA Shiladitya Dev, the party has decided to field Ramakrishna Ghosh from the constituency in the upcoming three-phased Assam Assembly elections.

The BJP today released a list of three candidates for Assam Assembly elections, as per the list, Milan Das has been named as the party candidate to contest from Hailakandi constituency, Paramananda Rajbanshi will contest from Sipajhar while Ramakrishna Ghosh will be contesting from Hojai.

The BJP announced the first list of 70 candidates for the ensuing polls on March 5. The saffron party has denied tickets to 11 sitting MLAs, including a minister in the first list of candidates.

On Sunday, BJP leader and cabinet minister Sum Ronghang joined the opposition Congress after he was denied ticket from the Diphu constituency.

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