Congress Unveils Second Candidate List for Assam Assembly Elections

Congress Announces New Candidates for Assam Elections

New Delhi/Guwahati, Mar 14: On Saturday, the Congress party revealed its second list of 23 candidates for the upcoming Assam Assembly elections, bringing the total number of candidates announced to 65 for the 126-member Assembly.

The party has allocated 15 seats for its coalition partners in the state, where elections are anticipated to occur in April.

This second list, made public by Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, includes three incumbent MLAs who have been renominated.

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

Additionally, former Lok Sabha MP Abdul Khaleque, who has previously served two terms as an MLA, has been designated as the candidate for the Mandia constituency.

Other candidates listed 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 reserved several constituencies for its alliance partners, which include Bajali, Palasbari, Guwahati Central, Goreswar, Morigaon, Barhampur, Bindakandi, Behali, Dibrugarh, and Diphu, among others.

The Congress is spearheading an alliance of opposition parties, which includes the CPI(M) and Assam Jatiya Parishad. The CPI (ML) Liberation also expressed its support for the alliance on Saturday.

Raijor Dal, which was part of the opposition coalition in previous elections, has not joined the current arrangement. Its leader, Akhil Gogoi, won the last Assembly election as an Independent.

Previously, on March 3, the Congress had announced its first list of 42 candidates for the Assembly elections, featuring state party chief Gaurav Gogoi from the Jorhat seat.

By announcing candidates ahead of the official poll schedule, the party indicated that the 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 nominated from the Barchalla constituency.

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

Currently, the ruling BJP holds 64 MLAs in the 126-member Assembly, with its allies, the AGP, having nine MLAs, the UPPL seven, and the BPF three members.

In the opposition, the Congress has 26 MLAs, the AIUDF has 15, and the CPI(M) has one legislator, along with one Independent MLA.

The upcoming elections will be the first in Assam following the completion of constituency delimitation in 2023, which involved redrawing the boundaries of several seats without changing the total number of Assembly constituencies.