Assam election 2016: 9 Muslims, six ex-Cong MLAs in BJP list

Sarbananda Sonowal

THE BJP on Wednesday released its list of 88 candidates for Assam, including nine Muslims. State party president and union minister Sarbananda Sonowal will contest from Majuli seat.

Former Congress strongman Himanta Biswa Sarma and five of his loyalists — all ex-Congress MLAs — have also got tickets.

While the BJP has already given away 24 seats to the AGP, it has left only 13 seats for its other ally, the Bodo People’s Front (BPF). In Nalbari, where Himanta-loyalist, former Congress MLA Jayanta Malla Barua, is also an aspirant, the final name is understood to have been kept on hold due to an objection by the RSS.

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Interestingly, while Sonowal is contesting from Majuli (ST), the party has named Jorhat Lok Sabha member Kamakhya Prasad Tasha as its candidate to take on three-time chief minister Tarun Gogoi in Titabor. Former state BJP chief Siddhartha Bhattacharyya has been named for Guwahati (East).

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Award-winning Assamese filmmaker Suman Haripriya, daughter of former union minister and sitting Guwahati MP Bijoya Chakravarty, has been nominated from Hajo. Of the five sitting BJP MLAs, legislature party leader Jadab Deka has been denied a ticket.

The list also has former ULFA militants Kushal Duwari (Thowra) and Bhaskar Sarma (Margherita); former IAS officer Bir Bhadra Hagjer (Haflong); and actor Angoorlata (Batadraba).