Ruling party faces fractured Assam opposition

Lily

B.R
Staff member
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Guwahati: The battle lines are drawn in Assam with the ruling Congress party pitted against a fractured opposition as the stage is all set for the first phase of elections April 4 in 62 of the 126 constituencies.

"We are ready to conduct the first phase of voting in 62 seats with poll officials already in place and hopeful of a free and peaceful polling," Assam's chief electoral officer H. Narzary said.

An estimated 485 candidates are in the fray for the first phase of whom 38 are women.

The Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have fielded 62 candidates each for the first phase, while the Asom Gana Parishad has put up 51 nominees.

There are 157 independent candidates in the fray for this phase.

The second phase voting is next Monday in the remaining 64 constituencies. The results are due May 13.

More than 30,000 police and paramilitary troopers are deployed for the first phase with authorities not taking any chances despite a general lull in the insurgency front.

Security measures

"We are hopeful of a peaceful election this time and all measures were being taken to ensure that militants and other elements are not able to sabotage the poll process," a senior Assam police official said.

Among the prominent candidates whose fate would be sealed in the first phase vote include Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Power Minister Pradyut Bordoloi, state BJP president Ranjit Dutta, and senior AGP leader Brindaban Goswami.

"I am more than 100 per cent confident the Congress party will make a political hat trick. We are forming the next government in Assam," the chief minister told IANS.

The opposition AGP and BJP are fighting the polls alone and both are harping on the theme of corruption and lack of development in the state.

"People of Assam want a change and a change for the better as they are fed up with the misrule and corruption during the last 10 years of Congress rule in the state.

The BJP is emerging as a viable alternative and we hope to form the next government," BJP state president Ranjit Dutta told IANS.

The AGP too is equally confident of ousting the Congress party.

"We the AGP are the only party that caters to the regional aspirations and hence we are sure people of Assam would give us a chance to rule the state by throwing out the Congress," AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary said.



Tamil Nadu: Contesting a seat at 64

C.N.A. Gouthaman, one of the four adopted sons of DMK founder and chief minister of Tamil Nadu late C.N. Annadurai, is one of the contestants in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

The 64-year-old Gouthaman is contesting as an independent from Anna Nagar constituency.

Asked why he didn't enter politics earlier, Gouthaman said, "I am a book publisher. My father didn't encourage us getting into politics, so we stayed away all these years. But I have been dreaming for 40 years of contesting in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections," he said.

Incidentally, Gouthaman said the AIADMK in 1970s and the DMK in 1980s had offered his elder brother Parimalan a Lok Sabha seat to contest which he declined. According to the affidavit filed by Gouthaman with the Election Commission, he has Rs 75,000 and owns a house with a market value of Rs8 million.

The Anna Nagar constituency is currently held by DMK leader Arcot N. Veerasamy. However, the DMK has allotted the seat to the Congress which has fielded V.K. Arivazhagan. The AIADMK is fielding Gokula Indira, a former MP.

A total of 20 candidates are in the fray from the constituency.

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