GUWAHATI, May 14 � Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is arriving in the city tomorrow to file his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections scheduled to be held on May 30. He will be accompanied by the Congress general secretary in charge of Assam, Digvijay Singh.
Congress sources told The Assam Tribune that Dr Singh is scheduled to arrive at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport around 11.30 am from where he would go straight to the Assam Assembly Secretariat to file his nomination papers before the Principal Secretary of the Assembly, who is the Returning Officer for the Rajya Sabha polls.
Sources said that the party has decided to file four sets of nomination papers on behalf of Dr Singh and during the filing of nomination papers, he would be accompanied by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Digvijay Singh and Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Bhubaneswar Kalita.
Dr Singh will also address a meeting of the legislators of Congress and Bodoland People�s Front (BPF) before flying back to New Delhi. Sources said that as per schedule, the Prime Minister would spend about an hour in the city.
Dr Singh was first elected to the Rajya Sabha from Assam in 1991 when he became the Finance Minister in the Congress Government headed by PV Narasimha Rao and it was the beginning of his political career. Since then he has been re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from the state and his present tenure would end in June.
However, the Congress is yet to finalize its second candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls and according to reports, the Chief Minister has given a list of 10 candidates to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The Congress has 79 members in the 126, member state Assembly, while, its alliance partner BPF has 12 members. With their present strength, the Congress-BPF alliance is sure of winning both the seats.
But the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), which has 18 members in the House, has announced that it is likely to field a candidate for the polls and would seek the help of the other opposition parties.
