Guwahati, March 22 Raijor Dal has announced its revised, final list of candidates for the Assam Assembly elections, withdrawing its nominees from three constituencies after forming an alliance with opposition parties in the state and agreeing to a seat-sharing arrangement as part of it.
The final list includes the names of its president, Akhil Gogoi, who has been renominated from the Sibsagar seat, and Congress MLA Abdur Rashid Mandal, who recently joined the regional party, from East Goalpara.
The party candidate for the Bokakhat constituency has not been named in this list, although its first list of candidates had fielded Ratan Dao from the seat.
Another Congress MLA, Sherman Ali Ahmed, who had also defected to Raijor Dal earlier this month, has been denied the party ticket.
Raijor Dal has nominated Rahul Cherty from Margherita, after their alliance partner, the Congress, withdrew its nominee Prateek Bordoloi, following his father, Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi, joining the BJP.
Other party nominees include Abul Mian from Gauripur, Anjan Talukdar from Manas, Azizur Rahman from Dalgaon, Mehbob Muktar from Dhing, Pradip Kumar Baruah from Kaliabor, Alok Nath (Tezpur), Dulal Chandra Baruah (Sissiborgaon) and Gyanashree Bora (Mariani).
Dulal Moran has been nominated from the Digboi constituency, replacing Lakhyajyoti Gogoi, who was previously nominated for the seat.
"This is the final list of candidates. The candidature of those members, whose names were earlier announced but are not included in this list, has been withdrawn," said party president Gogoi, signing the latest list.
He apologized to the aggrieved members, stating that "this difficult decision was necessary to unite the opposition against the communal forces of the BJP and RSS."
Raijor Dal had earlier announced its candidates for 13 seats in two lists.
Among those whose candidature has been withdrawn are Harikanta Das from Naoboicha, Babul Sonowal from Dhemaji and Ramen Chandra Borthakur from Jalukbari.
Raijor Dal is now part of a six-party alliance with Congress, CPI(M), Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), CPI(ML) Liberation and the All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC) based in Karbi Anglong.
Elections for the 126-member Assam Assembly will be held on April 9. Votes will be counted on May 4.
In the current Assembly, the ruling BJP has 64 members, while its allies AGP has 9, UPPL has 7 and BPF has 3.
In the opposition camp, the Congress has 26 members, AIUDF has 15 members, and CPI(M) has 1 member. There is also one Independent legislator.