Parties gear up For campaigns missing the Poll Issues

AIUDF names three candidates; BJP names one

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Even as the Lok Sabha poll campaign has been geared up in Assam, the scene is still hazy when it comes to poll issues. Whether the Opposition parties can make an issue out of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is something to keep tabs on.

Meanwhile, the BJP has named sitting MLA (minister) Pallab Lochan Das as its candidate for the Tezpur Lok Sabha seat where he is set for a straight fight with his (department’s) one-time top bureaucrat MGVK Bhanu. On his opponent Bhanu, Das said: “He’s good enough as a bureaucrat. However, politics is a different ball game. Everything – people’s culture, the way of life and many other factors – reflects in politics.”

The AIUDF has also named three candidates – party president Badruddin Ajmal for Dhubri, sitting MP Radheshyam Biswas for Karimganj and Dr Hafij Rafiqul Islam for Barpeta. While the Congress has not yet named its candidates for Dhubri, Barpeta and Guwahati, the AGP is yet to name its candidates for Barpeta and Dhubri. The BJP has also kept political pundits speculating about its Nagaon candidate. Among the candidates lined up for Congress tickets are – Abdul Khaleque and Sherman Ali Ahmed for the Barpeta seat and Bobita Sarma, Ramen Barthakur and Bolin Bordoloi for the prestigious Guwahati seat.

While BJP’s sitting MP Rajen Gohan and his wife told the media in Nagaon that he (the MP) is a victim of a conspiracy, beleaguered RP Sarmah dropped a broad hint that he is going to form a forum with the senior and deprived BJP leaders.

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