GUWAHATI, May 30 - The ruling BJP will soon start the process of selection of its candidates for four of the Legislative Assembly constituencies of Assam whose serving legislators got elected to the Lok Sabha in the recent General Elections.
Sources in the ruling party said that BJP is likely to put up its own candidates in all the four seats.
Three BJP MLAs, including Deputy Speaker of the Assam Legislative Assembly and Ratabari legislator Kripanath Mallah, Minister of State for Tea Tribes Welfare and Labour and Employment and Rangapara legislator Pallab Lochan Das and Minister of State for Power and Sonari MLA Topon Kumar Gogoi, besides Congress legislator from Jania Assembly constituency Abdul Khaleque won the recent Lok Sabha polls.
While Mallah won from Karimganj Lok Sabha constituency, Das emerged winner from Tezpur, Gogoi from Jorhat and Khaleque from Barpeta.
All four will have to resign from the Legislative Assembly by middle of next week, as per the rules.
�Formal discussion for selection of candidates has not started so far. But it is expected to begin in a day or two. However, there is plenty of time. The Election Commission has a six-month window period within which it has to fill up seats once they become officially vacant. But informal talks have been held by our leadership. There are many suitable candidates,� said a source.
The source added that the State election committee of the BJP would shortlist a panel of candidates for each of the constituencies and then send the names to the central committee for final approval once the date for the bye-elections are announced.
BJP may decide to field its own candidates in all the four seats. �There is no question of ceding the three seats which we won during the 2016 Assembly elections. As far as Jania is concerned, it is a minority-dominated constituency and falls under the Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency from where the AGP contested in the LS polls. However, parliamentary and Assembly elections are different. So it is possible that our leaders may very well decide that we should contest from Jania as well,� said a BJP leader.
He added, �We have the momentum with us and we are in no mood to leave any space to the Opposition. The Lok Sabha elections proved that wherever BJP fielded its own candidates we either won or gave a tough fight to the Opposition. But that was not the case in the constituencies where our allies contested.�
It is noteworthy that BJP was able to maintain huge leads in the Ratabari, Rangapara and Sonari Legislative Assembly Constituency (LAC) segments in the Lok Sabha polls. In Jania LAC segment, the Congress won the highest number of votes in the parliamentary polls followed by the AIUDF, while the AGP was pushed to the third position.
