The ruling BJP has shortlisted panel of names of prospective candidates for 10 of the Lok Sabha constituencies from Assam.
Sources said that barring Tezpur constituency, for which only one name – that of State Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma – has been shortlisted, the panels for the other seats contain multiple names.
For the Tezpur seat, the party has shortlisted only the name of Sarma. The name of sitting Tezpur MP RP Sarmah is missing from the panel.
For Silchar constituency the names of Rajdeep Roy and Parimal Suklabaidya have been shortlisted, while Kripanath Mallah and Amaresh Roy are in the panel for Karimganj constituency.
Sources said that the list for Diphu includes Haren Sing Bey, Bidya Sing Engleng, Tuliram Ronghang and Kache Teronpi. For the Jorhat seat, the names of sitting MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, State Minister Topon Kumar Gogoi, Lakhya Konwar and Santanu Gogoi are in the panel, while for Dibrugarh the names of sitting MP Rameswar Teli and Pulak Gohain are in the list.
Sitting MP Pradan Baruah and Haren Deori are in the panel for Lakhimpur. For Guwahati, the party has shortlisted sitting MP Bijoya Chakravarty, Bijuli Kalita Medhi, Queen Ojha and Chikimiki Talukdar.
The panel for Nagaon includes sitting MP and Union Minister Rajen Gohain, MLAs Rupak Sarmah and Angoorlata Deka, and Jitu Goswami. The shortlist for Mangaldai has the names of sitting MP Ramen Deka, Dilip Saikia and Jayanta Malla Baruah.
The BJP plans to contest in 10 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats from Assam in the forthcoming General Elections. It will leave Kaliabor, Dhubri and Barpeta constituencies for the AGP and the Kokrajhar seat for BPF.
BPF has already announced the candidature of State Minister Pramila Rani Brahma for Kokrajhar.
However, AGP wants to put up its own candidate from Mangaldai as well, a demand that the BJP is reluctant to concede.
Meanwhile, Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP’s Assam in-charge Mahendra Singh and State BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass visited the AGP’s head-office at Ambari here this evening. The BJP leaders held discussion with AGP president Atul Bora, working president Keshab Mahanta and other senior leaders of the regional party.
Sources said that the talks focussed on the issue of seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha polls.
Senior leaders of the State BJP and the AGP’s top leaders are likely to depart for New Delhi tomorrow. They will hold consultations with BJP national president Amit Shah after which the final list of candidates of both parties for the Lok Sabha polls is likely to be announced, sources added.
