AGP President Atul Bora files his nomination from Bokakhat Constituency

GUWAHATI: Asom Gana Parishad AGP president and state minister Atul Bora today filed his nomination papers from the Bokakhat Constituency.

Elected as the President of the regional party in 2014, Bora is currently the Minister for Agriculture and Veterinary in the Cabinet of Assam Government led by Sarbananda Sonowal.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal accompanied Bora while he filed his nomination papers from Bokakhat Legislative Assembly Council LAC.

The AGP and alliance partner of the ruling BJP in the state, recently released its list of 8 candidates for the first phase. As per the list working president of the party Keshab Mahanta will be in the fray from Kaliabor constituency.

The regional party has fielded Renupoma Rajkhowa from Teok, Bhabendra Nath Bharali from Dergaon, Pradip Hazarika from Amguri, Punakan Baruah from Chabua, Jayanta Khaund from Naoboicha and Prithviraj Rabha from Tezpur.

The party currently has 13 MLAs in the 126-member Assam Assembly, which is going to polls in three phases.

It needs to be mentioned here that veteran AGP leader and five-time MLA Brindaban Goswami was denied ticket and was replaced by newcomer Prithviraj Rabha who would contest from the prestigious Tezpur seat.

Earlier, their emerged a rift within the party after the founding president of the party Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was denied a party ticket from Barhampur. Rather, the BJP fielded its own candidate Jitu Goswami to contest from the constituency.

Explaining the cause of excluding Mahanta, a joint conference of the AGP-BJP-UPPL leaders said that the alliance is considering those candidates who have more chances to win from a particular constituency.

As per the seat-sharing arrangement of the AGP-BJP-UPPL alliance for the ensuing Assam Assembly elections 2021, leaders of the parties announced the list of 104 seats on March 5.

The list has excluded the names of 11 sitting ruling BJP MLAs and a Cabinet Minister. Going by the list, former Chief Minister and founder president of AGP — Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, and present Cabinet Minister Sum Ronhang will not get the tickets from their respective parties.

Of the 104 seats, the BJP will field its candidates in 70 constituencies. The AGP and UPPL will contest in 26 and eight constituencies respectively. UPPL have not yet announced the same.

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