Three sitting MPs, 80 others seek Congress tickets for Lok Sabha election in Assam

Guwahati: A total of 83 Congress members in Assam, including all three sitting MPs in the state, have sought party tickets for next year's Lok Sabha elections, an APCC release said.

While Nagaon MP Pradyut Bordoloi has submitted his application seeking re-election from the same constituency, Barpeta MP Abdul Khaleque has filed his papers without specifying any seat, it said.

Kaliabor MP Gaurav Gogoi, who lost his constituency in the delimitation exercise, has filed his application for Nagaon, Kaziranga and Jorhat seats.

The deputy leader of opposition in state Assembly, Rakibul Hussain, has also filed his application for Nagaon constituency, as per the list shared by the Congress.

Hussain, a former state cabinet minister, is the MLA from Samaguri, which comes under Nagaon.

The state Congress unit had started the process of accepting filled-up application forms from aspirants from December 11, along with a fee of Rs one lakh per application.

The process, which was initially scheduled to end on December 19, was extended and has come to an end on Friday.

As per the list of aspirants shared by the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), 83 members have sought party ticket, with more than 10 of them being women.

Dhubri has the highest number of aspirants with 13 filing papers, while Kokrajhar has the lowest number with two aspirants.

Eleven applications have been filed for Karimganj, seven each for Barpeta, Darrang Udalguri and Sonitpur, six for Silchar and five for Diphu, Lakhimpur and Jorhat.

There are four aspirants for Guwahati and Nagaon each, and three each in Kaziranga and Dibrugarh.

The list mentioned that one ticket aspirant for the Guwahati seat has not submitted the fees.

The APCC while announcing the application process earlier this month, had said that it may refrain from fielding candidates from certain constituencies as it is part of a 15-party opposition forum in the state, aiming to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls together.

Fees of aspirants who submit applications for such constituencies will be refunded, it had added.

The 15-party United Opposition Forum Assam (UOFA) has been formed in line with the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

The AJP, Raijor Dal, CPI(M), CPI, Jatiya Dal-Asom, NCP, RJD, Janata Dal (U), TMC, CPI(ML) and AAP are among the UOFA alliance.