ECI announces elections for 3 Rajya Sabha seats from Assam on March 26

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced elections for three Rajya Sabha seats from Assam. The biennial elections to the Council of States will be held for 55 seats from 17 States in April 2020.

The ECI will issue the notifications on March 6. The last date of making nominations is March 13. Scrutiny of nominations will be on March 16. The last date for withdrawal of candidatures is March 18.

While the polls will be held from 9 am to 4 pm on March 26, (Thursday) 2020, the counting of votes will commence from 5 pm that very day. The election will be completed before March 30, 2020.

While one of the three election-bound seats from Assam is presently being held by Biswajit Daimary of the BPF (Bodoland People’s Front), the other two seats are being occupied by Bhubaneswar Kalita and Dr. Sanjay Sinh of the Congress; however, both resigned from the Council of States last year and have now joined the BJP. According to an ECI press note, all of them will retire in April 2020.

Presently, there are 124 MLAs in Assam Legislative Assembly. Due to the death of former Speaker of ALA and Sibsagar legislator Pranab Kumar Gogoi (Congress) and Rajen Borthakur (BJP) from Rangapara, two seats are vacant.

Addressing the media here on Tuesday, Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “Going by the party-wise strength of MLAs in the State, while the ruling coalition should get two seats, the Opposition — if they remain united — could win one seat.

Sarma added, “As the notification was issued today, discussions on the seats is yet to take place. During the last year’s Rajya Sabha polls, we had left one of the seats to our coalition partner, AGP (Asom Gana Parishad). But this time, we will leave one of the RS seats to the other coalition partner, the BPF. This seat-sharing formula for the Rajya Sabha has been taken according to pre-poll 2016 Assembly commitments of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) to our alliance partners.”

Dwelling on the RS seats, Sarma added, “Before the Assembly polls in 2021, election will be held also for two more RS seats of Assam. However, we will field only BJP candidates for those two seats.”

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