Rebellion hits hard Asom parties

Guwahati, Mar 18 (UNI) With ticket distribution for the coming elections over, political parties in Asom are busy tackling rebellion from disappointed part aspirants.

As the curtain for the first phase of nomination draws to a close, it was apparent that in almost every constituency, there were at least two rebel candidates of the same party.

The Congress, BJP and AGP have been hit the hardest as not less than a dozen rebel nominees have submitted their nominations as independents, the most prominent among whom is Mr Biraj Kumar Sharma, a two time MLA from the Guwahati east constituency.

In the Congress, at least four senior leaders defected to the NCP at the last moment. They included six time MLA Dileshwar Tanti and prominent youth leader and party secretary Kishore Bhattacharya.

The BJP has its own share of trouble but fortunately despite street fighting as well as an incident of gunfire at its office, not many rebel candidates have actually gone on to contest the polls.

''We are hoping that it will calm down. This is not unnatural. I am not very concerned but going by the Congress culture, every passing day it will die down and on the polling day we will all be one,'' said Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi admitting to rebellion within the party but ruling out any harm to the party's prospects due to it.

But the AGP has realized that they are a house divided. The party already hit hard by the breakaway faction of Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, is seeing a senior AGP leader like Biraj Kumar Sharma contesting against the official nominee Birendra Prasad Baishya, a former Union Minister.

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