GUWAHATI, April 18: Altogether 12 candidates, including Congress and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) MLAs Rakibul Hussain and Phani Bhushan Choudhury respectively, filed their nomination on Thursday for the four Assam Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls in the third and final phase on May 7, an election official said.
Altogether 30 candidates have filed their nominations so far for Dhubri, Kokrajhar (ST), Barpeta and Guwahati.
In Dhubri, three candidates filed their nominations which included Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain, AGP’s Zabed Islam and Republican Party of India (Athawale)’s Rejaul Karim, taking the total candidates so far to nine.
In Barpeta, four candidates filed their papers, including eight-time AGP MLA and former minister Phani Bhushan Choudhury, Sahajahan Ali of Voters Party International (VPI), Chitralekha Das of SUCI(C) and Amzad Ali of RPI(A) with the total candidates submitting their nominations so far to six.
In Kokrajhar (ST), three candidates filed their nominations, including NDA’s Jayanta Basumatary of United Peoples’ Party Liberal (UPPL), Ajoy Narzary of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Gouri Shankar Sarania of All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), with the total to nine so far.
In Guwahati, two independents Kazi Nekib Ahmed and Col Gokul Chandra Singha filed their nominations, taking the total number of having filed their papers for the seat to six.
The last date of filing of nomination is April 19 and the scrutiny will be carried out the next day. The last date for withdrawal of nomination is April 22.
Polling in Assam will be held in three phases with 35 candidates for the five seats of Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaziranga, Sonitpur and Lakhimpur in the first phase on April 19, while 61 candidates are contesting in the five constituencies of Nagaon, Diphu (ST), Karimganj, Silchar and Darrang-Udalguri in the second phase on April 26.
In the outgoing Lok Sabha, BJP held nine seats, Congress three, AIUDF and an independent one each from the state. (PTI)
