GUWAHATI, March 23 - The final list of Lok Sabha election candidates of the Congress party for Assam is likely to be released on either March 25 or March 26.
Congress sources said that the party high command is now focusing on releasing the lists of candidates of those constituencies in the other states which will also go to the polls in the first phase (on April 11) and the second phase (on April 18).
Names of Congress nominees of four constituencies in Assam � Barpeta, Dhubri, Guwahati and Kokrajhar � have so far not been announced.
�Our candidates for the constituencies going to the polls in the first two phases have already been declared. There is plenty of time for filing of nominations for seats which will go to the polls in the third phase on April 23. So, at present, the Congress central election committee (CEC) is focusing on finalising the lists of other states where polls will be held in the first two phases. The next meeting of the CEC for Assam is expected to take place on March 25. The final list for Assam is likely to be released either on the evening of March 25 or on the morning of March 26,� said a senior Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) leader.
The notification for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections will be issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on March 28 and the last date for filing of nominations for that phase is April 4.
The Congress has so far announced names of its candidates for 10 of the 14 constituencies of Assam. The first list comprising names of five candidates (for Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Silchar and Karimganj seats) was announced on March 15, while the second list, with names of five candidates (for Nagaon, Tezpur, Lakhimpur, Mangaldai and Diphu), was released on March 18.
Sources said that Abdul Khaleque and Abdur Rahim Khan are the frontrunners for party nomination in Barpeta, while Sabda Ram Rabha and Durga Das Boro are the main contenders from Kokrajhar.
For the Dhubri seat, Abu Taher Bepari, Wazed Ali Choudhury and Ghalib Islam are in the race, while for Guwahati the names of Bolin Bordoloi and Bobbeeta Sharma are in the reckoning, sources added.
