Assam RS poll scene hots up

Senior journalist Ajit Kumar Bhuyan and Bhubaneshwar Kalita have filed the nomination papers for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls.

Bhubaneshwar Kalita was accompanied by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and others while former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi along with other Congress leaders has accompanied Ajit Bhuyan during the filing of nominations.

While Bhubaneshwar Kalita is the first candidate of BJP among the three seats of Rajya Sabha, Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF)'s Biswajit Daimary will contest for the second seat fielded by its ally BJP.

However, thesaffron party is yet to decide the third candidate for the Rajya Sabha.

Meanwhile, senior journalist Ajit Bhuyan will contest independently for the Rajya Sabha polls. He will be supported by Congress and AIUDF.

Moreover, the fate of veteran journalist Atanu Bhuyan is not known as he was struggling to get a mandatory 10 MLAs signature as proposer. His collection of form created a storm last night.

Assam Finance Minister and Rajya Sabha election specialist Dr Hiamanta Biswa Sarma had pronounced yesterday that if Mr Atanu Bhuyan can muster 10 signature than the ruling bloc will support him.

Meanwhile, there are attempts to woo in Mr Prafulla Kumar Mahanta as the third candidate for the ruling bloc. However, Mr Mahanta refused to entertain as the whole exercise was fraught with the risk of losing political credibility, something Mr Atanu Bhuyan can afford to absorb as he is a non-political man.

The RajyaSabha poll is scheduled to take place on March 26 and the last date of filingof nomination papers is March 13 for the three seats of Assam.