The BJP will leave one Rajya Sabha seat for the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), its ally in Dispur, the party’s state unit said on Tuesday amid reports that it was distancing itself from the BPF.
Three seats — of Bhubaneswar Kalita, Sanjay Singh and Biswajit Daimary — will fall vacant in Assam on April 9 as their terms end.
The Election Commission, in a notification on Tuesday, said election for the three seats would be held on March 26.
Both Kalita and Singh resigned from the Rajya Sabha and from the Congress last year, ventilating their dissatisfaction against the party for opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act, and joined the BJP. Their posts have been vacant since then. Daimary represents the BPF.
Assam cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday, “The BJP will contest one seat. We will leave another seat for our alliance partner. If the Opposition unite, we do not have much scope for contesting the third seat as of today.” When asked which alliance partner was he talking about, Sarma said, “We have already given (one seat) to the AGP.”
Last year, the BJP had named Birendra Prasad Baishya, the leader of its alliance partner AGP, as one of its two candidates for the two Rajya Sabha seats that fell vacant despite the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls held a few months ago.
Baishya and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa of the BJP were elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha, where Assam has seven seats.
Sarma’s comment comes amid reports of the BJP distancing itself from the BPF. and amid speculation that it could come to some sort of understanding with the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL), the BPF’s rival in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD). Former All Bodo Students’ Union (Absu) president Pramod Boro, who was elevated as UPPL president on Tuesday, is being seen as an alternative face to BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary in the BTAD.
In the 126-member Assam Assembly, the BJP and its alliance partners have 86 seats — BJP 60, AGP 14 and BPF 12 — and the support of the lone Independent candidate, Bhuban Pegu. The Congress has 23 MLAs and the AIUDF has 14. Two seats are vacant.
The BJP has not yet named its candidate but sources said Kalita was a likely candidate.
