Opposition divided on Asom RS seat

Guwahati, May 14 (UNI) With the elections to the two Rajya Sabha (RS) seats from Asom scheduled on May 24, the Congress has finalised its nominee but the Opposition has failed to put up a common candidate for the lone Rajya Sabha seat.

Consensus eluded the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the BJP and the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF). The AGP fielded Kumar Deepak Das, the BJP fielded Bijay Gupta while the AUDF former Union Minister Matang Singh.

Mr Das had lost both his legs in an ULFA attack in the 2001 elections, making him the sympathy candidate for the AGP, which uses secret ballot to select their candidate.

For one of the RS seats, the Congress nominee Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was a certainty as its associate members and the Bodoland Peoples' Party decided to vote only for Dr Singh.

''There will be no second preference candidate from us as a mark of respect to the Prime Minister, to eliminate any chance of controversy,'' Asom Minister Dr Hiamanta Biswa Sharma said today.

This morning, leader of Opposition Brindabon Goswai said efforts were still on for a united candidate. Despite five days of discussions, the AGP-BJP-AUDF could not decide about the order of rotation.

The AGP blamed the other two parties for failing to come to a consensus while the others held the AGP's arrogance responsible for the debacle. However, AGP President Brindabon Goswami said he was confident of winning the election.

''We had a complete democratic method to elect our candidate. The candidature was not thrust upon us,'' AGP General Secretary Sarbananda Sonowal said.

The AGP has the support of 28 votes with the Left parties supporting them. According to arithmetical calculations, they were likely to win the seat, but the presence of dark horse Matang Singh had made them apprehensive as he could once again manipulate his way up in upper Asom, where he was a member during the P V Narasimha Rao regime, before he fell out of favour from the Congress.

He had surprised everyone by winning from the Congress in 1993 and he was now representing the AUDF, which had 11 members in the House. Thus, his presence had made the picture of the Opposition camp even more confusing.

UNI