Assam 60 candidates file nominations for May 7 polls to four Lok Sabha seats

    Guwahati, Apr 19 (PTI) Altogether 60 candidates have filed their nomination papers, including 30 on the last day on Friday, for four Lok Sabha seats in Assam that are going to polls in the third phase on May 7, an election official said.
    Dhubri, Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Guwahati seats will go to polls on May 7.
    In Dhubri, a total of 19 candidates have filed their nominations with 10 Independents submitting their papers on the last day.
    The minority-dominated district is likely to witness a triangular contest between AIUDF chief and sitting MP Badruddin Ajmal, seeking to return to Parliament for the fourth consecutive term, Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain and NDA nominee Zaved Islam of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP).
    In Kokrajhar, sitting MP Naba Kumar Sarania, whose writ petition in the Gauhati High Court challenging the striking down of his Scheduled Tribe (Plains) status by the State Level Scrutiny Committee (SLSC) was dismissed on Thursday, filed his nomination papers as an Independent candidate.
    Six others, including Bodoland People's Front (BPF)'s Kampa Borgoyary, Kamtapur Peoples' Front (KPF) Triptina Rabha, Binita Deka of Gana Sangram Parishad (GSP) and three Independents filed their nominations on the last day, taking the total contestants to 16.
    In Guwahati, BJP candidate Bijuli Kalita Medhi filed her nominations along with Samad Choudhury of Bharatiya Gana Parishad and two Independents on the last day, taking the total contestants to 10.
    In Barpeta, nine candidates, including CPI(M)'s Manoranjan Talukdar, BPF's Samejuddin, KPF's Jagannath Rai, Trinamool Congress's Abul Kalam Azad and five Independents filed their nominations on the final day, taking the total contestants to 15.
    The scrutiny will be done on Saturday.
    The last date for withdrawal of nominations is April 22.
    Five Lok Sabha seats -- Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaziranga, Sonitpur and Lakhimpur – went to polls in the first phase on Friday, while voting will be held in five more --Nagaon, Diphu, Karimganj, Silchar and Darrang-Udalguri – in the second phase on April 26.
    In the outgoing Lok Sabha, BJP held nine seats, Congress three, AIUDF one, besides an Independent MP.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)