Assam polls: Congress releases 2nd list of 23 candidates, tally rises to 65

New Delhi/Guwahati, Mar 14: The Congress on Saturday released its second list of 23 candidates for the upcoming Assam Assembly elections, taking the total number of nominees announced by the party so far to 65 in the 126-member House.

The party has also left 15 seats for its alliance partners in the state, where Assembly elections are expected to be held in April.

In the second list, released by Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, three sitting MLAs have been renominated.

They are Wazed Ali Choudhury from Birsing Jarua, Abul Kalam Rasheed Alam from Goalpara East and Rakibuddin Ahmed from Chamaria.

Former Lok Sabha MP Abdul Khaleque, who has also served two terms as an MLA, has been named as the party’s candidate from the Mandia constituency.

Other candidates in the list include Bipul Gogoi from Tingkhong, Kartik Chandra Kurmi from Rangapara, Santanu Borah from New Guwahati, Kishore Kumar Barua from Dimoria, Nurul Islam from Srijangram and Devid Phukan from Tinsukia.

The Congress has set aside several constituencies for its alliance partners, including Bajali, Palasbari, Guwahati Central, Goreswar, Morigaon, Barhampur, Bindakandi, Behali, Dibrugarh and Diphu, among others.

The party is leading an alliance of Opposition parties that includes the CPI(M) and Assam Jatiya Parishad. The CPI (ML) Liberation also extended its support to the alliance on Saturday.

Raijor Dal had been part of the Opposition alliance in previous elections, but the arrangement has not materialised for the forthcoming polls. Its chief Akhil Gogoi had won the last Assembly election as an Independent.

Earlier, on March 3, the Congress had released its first list of 42 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections, fielding state party chief Gaurav Gogoi from the Jorhat seat.

Taking the lead in announcing candidates even before the declaration of the poll schedule, the party said Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Debabrata Saikia will contest from the Nazira constituency.

Former Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Ripun Bora has been fielded from the Barchalla constituency.

The Congress has been out of power in Assam since 2016, while the BJP-led government will be eyeing a third consecutive term.

Currently, the ruling BJP has 64 MLAs in the 126-member Assembly. Its allies, the AGP, have nine MLAs, the UPPL has seven and the BPF has three members.

In the Opposition camp, the Congress has 26 MLAs, the AIUDF has 15 and the CPI(M) has one legislator. There is also one Independent MLA.

The upcoming election will be the first in Assam since the delimitation of constituencies was completed in 2023, when the boundaries of several seats were redrawn without altering the total number of Assembly constituencies.

PTI