Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and Asom Gana Parishad’s Birendra Prasad Baishya filed their nominations for the ensuing Rajya Sabha elections slated for June 7 next in Guwahati on Tuesday.
Also read: BJP offers one Rajya Sabha seat to ally AGP in Assam
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Both Tasa and Baishya were named as the candidates for the two posts that will fall vacant as the tenure of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Santius Kujur will expire on June 14 this year.
Earlier on Monday, BJP’s central election committee secretary J P Nadda in a statement said that the party has decided the name of Tasa for one of the two Rajya Sabha seats.
Also read: BJP nominates Kamakhya Prasad Tasa in Assam’s one RS seat
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Tasa who belongs to the Tea tribe community won the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from prestigious Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency in Assam overthrowing a strong Congress legacy.
AGP veteran Birendra Prasad Baishya has been named earlier as the consensus candidate for the second Rajya Sabha seat of the ruling alliance partners.
Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, state finance minister and convenor of North Eastern Democratic Alliance (NEDA) Himanta Biswa Sarma, state BJP president Ranjit Dass and AGP president Atul Bora among others were present when the duo filed their nomination at the State Secretariat at Dispur on Tuesday.
Both Tasa and Baishya submitted their nomination papers to returning officer A N Deka.
While the Congress is unlikely to field any candidate this time due to shortage of numbers to ensure victory for its candidate, the BJP decided to field Tasa in one seat while it has given the other seat to its alliance partner AGP.
The date for scrutiny of the nominations is May 29.
If the papers of both the candidates are found valid and if they don’t withdraw their nominations by May 31, the last date for withdrawing nomination, they are likely to be declared winners after 3 pm on Friday.
Notably, the third seat which will fall vacant next year will be given to another alliance partner Bodoland People’s Front (BPF). This was announced by NEDA convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma after filing of the nomination.