Hit by reports of dissidence and serious infighting for last several months, the ruling Congress has issued a three-line whip to ensure total turnout of party legislators and its ally Bodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF) for the Rajya Sabha elections on Thursday.
While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is contesting in one of the Rajya Sabha seats, the Congress has put up another candidate — Santiuse Kujur in the second seat.
Interestingly, State’s principal Opposition party — All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) has also put up its general secretary Aminul Islam as candidate for the second seat in the Upper House.
Both seats of the Rajya Sabha are likely to be won by the Congress this time considering the party’s strength in the Assam Assembly. While there are 79 MlAs of the Congress in the Assembly, its ally BPF has 12 legislators. The AIUDF has only 18 MlAs in the present Assembly.
Senior party leader and State Agriculture Minister Nilamoni Sen Deka on Wednesday said that the Congress has made up its strategy to win over both seats of the Rajya Sabha. “As part of the strategy, 49 MlAs will vote for Manmohan Singh and another 45 will vote for Santiuse Kujur,” Deka said, adding that there was no chance that the AIUDF candidate could win the second seat.
Another senior Congress leader said that the whip had been issued to avoid any confusion on the part of the legislators and explained that the whip would make it mandatory to cast their votes and the legislators would also have to show their ballots to the party polling agents.
The two party polling agents — State Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain and Parliamentary Secretary for Home Department Bhupen Bora — observe the ballots cast against the party’s candidate.
Meanwhile, the Congress needs only 38 votes each to win the two seats as the two Opposition parties, AGP and BJP, have decided to abstain from the voting.
The AGP, with nine MlAs in the House, has decided to abstain from voting as it had failed to arrive at a consensus over the second candidate. Similarly, the BJP — which has five legislators in the Assembly — had also decided to abstain from voting as the party did not support any contestants.