assam-polls-raijor-dal-revises-list-after-seat-sharing-deal

Raijor Dal on Sunday released its revised and final list of candidates for the April 9 Assam Assembly elections, dropping nominees from three constituencies after entering into a seat-sharing arrangement with Opposition allies.

The list includes party president Akhil Gogoi, who has been renominated from Sibsagar, and Congress MLA-turned-party leader Abdur Rashid Mandal from East Goalpara.

The party has not named a candidate for Bokakhat in the revised list, though it had earlier fielded Ratan Dao from the constituency. Another Congress MLA who recently joined the party, Sherman Ali Ahmed, has been denied a ticket.

Raijor Dal has fielded Rahul Cherty from Margherita after Congress nominee Prateek Bordoloi withdrew following his father, Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi, quitting the party to join the BJP.

Among other candidates announced are Abul Mian from Gauripur, Anjan Talukdar from Manas, Azizur Rahman from Dalgaon, Mehbob Muktar from Dhing, Pradip Kumar Baruah from Kaliabor, Alok Nath from Tezpur, Dulal Chandra Baruah from Sissiborgaon and Gyanashree Bora from Mariani.

Dulal Moran has been nominated from Digboi, replacing Lakhyajyoti Gogoi, who was named earlier.

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“This is the final candidate list. The candidature of those honourable members, which was declared earlier but their names have not been included in this, is cancelled,” Gogoi said.

He apologised to those affected, stating that “this tough decision had to be taken for the sake of opposition unity to uproot the communal BJP-RSS forces”.

The party had earlier announced candidates for 13 seats in two phases. Among those dropped are Harikanta Das (Naoboicha), Babul Sonowal (Dhemaji) and Ramen Chandra Borthakur (Jalukbari).

Raijor Dal is now part of a six-party Opposition alliance that includes the Congress, CPI(M), Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI(ML) Liberation and the All Party Hill Leaders Conference.

Polling for the 126-member Assam Assembly will be held on April 9, with counting scheduled for May 4.