Opposition divided on candidate for Asom RS seat

Guwahati, May 14 (UNI) Consensus eluded the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the BJP and the Asom United Democratic Front (AUDF) to put up a unanimous Opposition candidate for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Asom.

The election to two Rajya Sabha seats from the Northeastern state will take place on May 24. For one seat, Congress nominee Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a certainty, with the party's associate members and the Bodoland People's Party deciding to vote only for Dr Singh.

For the other seat, even after five days of deliberations between the AGP, BJP and the AUDF the issued remained inconclusive.

This morning Leader of the Opposition Brindabon Goswami said efforts were still on for finding a common candidate.

With the BJP backing out, the AGP and the AUDF were engaged in a slugfest and have put up separate candidates for the upper House seat. While the AGP has fielded Kumar Deepak Das, the AUDF has extended support to Independent candidate former Union Minister Matang Singh.

''We have decided not to contest as per the high command decision,'' said state BJP president Ramen Deka, who and other BJP leaders had assembled to file the nomination papers for their candidate Vijay Gupta.

According to BJP insiders, one of the MLAs Kartick Sen Sinha, supposed to sign the nomination paper, could not come as he met with an accident and the PSO was killed.

On the other hand, the AGP nominee Kumar Deepak Das, who had lost both his legs in a ULFA attack in the 2001 election, was chosen by a secret ballot.

With the BJP backing out of the race, AGP candidate's chances has become bright.

Referring to the nomination of Dr Manmohan Singh, state minister and government spokesman Himanta Biswa Sharma said, ''There will be no second preference candidate from us as a mark of respect to the Prime Minister to eliminate any chance of controversy.'' The AGP blamed the other two parties for failing to come out of a consensus, while the other two parties charged the AGP with being ''arrogant''.

However, AGP president Brindabon Goswami was confident of winning the election.

''We have a complete democratic method to elect our candidate.

The candidature was not thrust upon us,'' said the AGP general secretary Sarbananda Sonowal. The AGP has the support of 28 votes with the Left parties supporting them.

UNI