The elections for the two Rajya Sabha seats in Assam on Thursday seem to be heading towards exciting results.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is in power at the Center and in the state, has enough MLAs to win a seat, the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Both have expressed confidence of victory. This has increased the uneasiness of the opposition Congress.
The BJP has fielded Pabitra Gogoi Margherita from one seat while its ally United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) has fielded Ravangwara Narzari from the second seat.
“Congress does not know that many of its MLAs are going to join BJP. Also, the candidates are not bound to follow the whip issued by the party in the Rajya Sabha elections. By this count, we will manage to get both the seats,” Biswa Sarma had said recently.
The lone Congress candidate is former MP Ripun Bora. “The Congress has the numbers and I am sure we will win,” he said.
Each winning candidate will need at least 43 votes.
In the 126-member Assam Assembly, the BJP has 63 MLAs, while allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and UPPL have nine and seven MLAs, respectively. Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), which has started supporting BJP, has 3 MLAs.
So, overall, the BJP potentially has at least 82 votes.
Congress has 27 MLAs. It is also relying on the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) with 15 MLAs and one each on the Raisar Dal and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). If all these MLAs support the Congress, it will have 44 votes.
So, while Congress appears to have enough votes to win a Rajya Sabha The BJP’s trust has given it a reason to be cautious.
After Himanta Biswa Sarma’s remark, Congress’s Assam in-charge Jitendra Singh has reached Guwahati and is holding a meeting with party MLAs.
The Congress has also issued a three-line whip to its MLAs on election day, in the hope that there will be no cross voting in favor of the BJP.
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