From Mayukh Goswami
Mangaldai : Former State Minister for Information and Public Relation , Water Resources etc Basanta Das has filed his nomination paper as the Congress candidate for the SC reserved Mangaldai seat on March 12. Apart from Das other two Congress candidates for Darrang district also filed their nominations on the last day of submission of nomination papers for the second phase of the Assam Assembly polls on April 1 next.
Illias Ali, sitting MLA from Dalgaon and Kuldeep Baruah , a new face for Sipajhar are the two other candidates in the district nominated by the Congress party . Before proceeding for nominations the candidates attended a meeting here at Rajib Bhavan which was addressed by APCC Chief Ripun Bora in presence of several other senior and lower level party leaders and workers including Chandan Baruah , National Secretary Congress Seva Dal and APCC General Secretary Ramanna Baruah. Ripun Borah highlighted the five poll guarantees of the party and claimed that all the four assembly seats in the district will be won by candidates of their grand alliance and the district will be free from BJP MLAs .
On the other hand Health Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sharma, Mangaldai Loksabha MP Dilip Kumar Saikia, Mangaldai Legislator Gurujyoti Das addressed a rally of the ruling BJP at Bhebarghat public field here prior to filing of nomination papers by their party candidate Madhuram Deka for Kalaigaon seat . Minister Sharma claimed that the picture is almost clear that BJP led coalition will again form the government at Dispur and at the same time cautioned the voters of Kalaigaon that if they fail to elect the BJP then the development in the area would suffer . Meanwhile few others have also filed their nominations on the day . However the figure is not officially declared till filing of this report. Till Thursday seven candidates have filed nominations for the four seats of the district.