Prafulla Mahanta’s Barhampur seat goes to BJP, 9 AGP men likely in 1st list

Assam Election 2021

BJP

GUWAHATI: Former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta’s Barhampur constituency in Nagaon will not see an Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) candidate in the Assam assembly election this time.

According to reliable BJP sources, the seat will be contested by the BJP’s Jitu Goswami.

At least nine sitting AGP MLAs are likely to retain tickets for the first phase of polls on March 27, the sources added.

Meanwhile, BJP’s Taranga Gogoi and Manab Deka are almost sure to contest from Naharkatiya and Lakhimpur respectively. Both the seats were represented by AGP men Naren Sonowal and Utpal Dutta respectively.

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The sources said AGP’s Ramendra Narayan Kalita and Bhabendra Nath Bharali might retain the West Guwahati and Dergaon tickets though.

The BJP likely to finalise first list of candidates this evening. Sources, however, said the party leadership might announce only the seat shares of the different parties in the BJP-led alliance this evening.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda and other senior party leaders will attend a meeting which is scheduled to be held at party headquarters at Delhi this evening.

Nadda, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and his cabinet colleague Himanta Biswa Sarma met Shah at his residence in New Delhi last evening to discuss strategy for Assam Assembly elections ahead of the party’s central election committee meeting.

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After the unofficial news circulated that the sitting MLA of Lahoal in Dibrugarh district, Rituparna Baruah, has been denied the BJP ticket and Binod Hazarika, sitting MLA of Chabua, is going to get the ticket from Lahoal, BJP workers in Lahoal started staging protests in Lahoal today.

They demand Rituparna Baruah to contest from Lahoal. They also said they will not accept Hazarika as Lahoal candidate. The party workers threatened to resign if Baruah is denied the ticket.

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According to a list made available to InsideNE the following candidates are likely to get tickets:

Margherita - Bhaskar Sharma (BJP)

Sadiya - Bolin Chetia (BJP)

Barhampur - Jitu Goswami (BJP)

Sipajhar - Paramananda Rajbongshi (AGP)

Golaghat - Ajanta Neog (BJP)

Khumtai - Mrinal Saikia (BJP)

Dhemaji - Ronuj Pegu (BJP)

Jonai - Bhuban Pegu (BJP)

Dhekiajuli - Ashok Singhal (BJP)

Sootea- Padma Hazarika (BJP)