Rajya Sabha polls: Assam BJP clears Jogen Mohan, Terash Gowalla; UPPL eyes third

Guwahati, March 3: The Central Election Committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has approved the names of Jogen Mohan and Terash Gowalla from Assam for two of the three vacant seats in the upcoming biennial Rajya Sabha elections.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Tuesday, said party MLAs have been invited to Guwahati to formally hand over the nomination letters on Wednesday.

“On March 5, we will file their nominations,” he said, after laying the foundation stone of the Sati Sadhani Samannay Khetra at Komargao in Golaghat.

Gowalla is the MLA from Duliajan, while Mohan, the MLA from Mahmora, is a Cabinet Minister holding the portfolios of Public Works, Hills Areas, Cooperation, and Indigenous and Tribal Faith & Culture.

With three seats from Assam falling vacant, speculation is rife that the third candidate may be fielded by the BJP-led NDA ally, the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL).

The Chief Minister clarified that the BJP would neither contest nor oppose a candidate fielded by the UPPL for the third seat.

“They have informed us about the possibility that they might file nominations, but the final decision has not been conveyed yet. The BJP cannot win the third seat as we do not have the required numerical strength. That is why, if Pramod Boro contests the third seat, we are fine with it,” Sarma said.

Meanwhile, UPPL chief Pramod Boro indicated that internal discussions are underway within the party.

“Though we already have two members in the Rajya Sabha, UPPL workers wish to have another MP. We have not taken a decision yet, and discussions are ongoing. We will announce the candidate’s name tomorrow after discussion,” Boro said.

He argued that securing an additional MP would strengthen the party’s push for the long-pending 125th Constitutional Amendment Bill, which seeks to enhance the powers of autonomous councils.

“Once passed, the 40 constituencies in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) will increase to 60. It will also ensure direct financial flow from the Centre to the council instead of routing it through the state government,” he said.

Boro further said that neither the UPPL nor the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) has ever managed to send three MPs to Parliament.

“It will be historic if a small party like UPPL manages to do so. We will seek support from BJP, AGP, Congress, AIUDF and even BPF,” he added.

Meanwhile, in its first list of nine candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls, the BJP has named Nitin Nabin and Shivesh Kumar from Bihar, Laxmi Verma from Chhattisgarh, Sanjay Bhatia from Haryana, Manmohan Samal and Sujeet Kumar from Odisha, and Rahul Sinha from West Bengal.

Earlier, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that biennial elections will be held for 37 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states. The last date for filing nominations is March 5.

Polling will take place on March 16 between 9 am and 4 pm, with counting scheduled for 5 pm the same day.

The three Rajya Sabha members from Assam set to retire next month are Ajit Kumar Bhuyan (Independent), Bhubaneswar Kalita (BJP) and Sarbananda Sonowal (BJP), paving the way for the biennial elections to fill the vacant seats.

With inputs from IANS