GUWAHATI, Feb 11� With the Assembly elections round the corner, major political parties of the State are in a hurry to finalise the list of their nominees. Nearly 700 aspirants have applied for Congress nominations so far, while around 650 aspirants have applied for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) tickets and over 550 aspirants for the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) tickets in this connection. About 286 aspirants have sought All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) nominations.
According to the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) sources, the process of filing application for the Congress ticket is still on. The deadline for submission of applications for APCC nominations is February 15.
Those who have applied for the party tickets so far include former Chief Minister Anowara Taimur, Ministers Nurjamal Sarkar and Dr Nazrul Islam, MLAs Dr Rumi Nath and Dr Tara Das, among others. The Chief Minister is yet to submit his application form for the purpose, said the sources.
It needs mention here that Dr Nath was expelled from the BJP for going against the party whip in the latest Rajya Sabha elections, while Dr Das is an associate member of the Congress in the State Legislature
As of now, the Congress is to field its candidates from all the Assembly Constituencies. The final list, of the party nominees is expected to be published by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) by the second week of March, said the APCC sources.
BJP sources said that the process of filing applications for party tickets has ended some time back and the party is publishing its first list of nominees within the current month. The party has by this time decided to field candidates in almost all the Legislative Assembly Constituencies (LACs) of the State, said the sources.
The AGP has by this time published the first list of its nominees containing the names of candidates for 31 LACs. The second list of nominees of the party is expected shortly. The party is to contest in more than 84 LACs, said the party sources.
The AIUDF has started the process of finalizing its list of nominees and it is expected that the party would be able to finalise the list by the first week of the next month.
According to party working president HRA Choudhury, they have received 286 applications for party tickets in 79 LACs. The party election committee decided yesterday that a 13-member committee will interact with the applicants and this interaction is likely to take some time.
The AIUDF is hopeful that it would be able to perform better this time, as, it is now an organized party, said Choudhury.
Bodoland People�s Front (BPF) leaders could not be contacted, despite repeated attempts, to know their electoral preparations.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Anowara Taimur told this newspaper that she is aspiring to contest from the Dalgaon LAC. She had earlier represented the LAC for five terms and rose to the position of the Chief Minister of the State, besides holding other Cabinet portfolios like education, PWD, agriculture, tourism etc, she said.
