After the recent blunder over his age in the nomination papers for Rajya Sabha elections from Assam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh filed a fresh affidavit correcting his age from 82 years to 80 years.
He had time till Monday to make the correction. On Tuesday, his nomination papers were found to be valid after scrutiny. However, the nomination of another Congress candidate Santiuse Kujur for the second Rajya Sabha seat from Assam has led to 26 party legislators from the State openly opposing him.
Senior Congress leader Anjan Dutta said that Kujur's nomination has demoralised dedicated and senior partymen. He, along with 25 aggrieved Congress MlAs would vote 'under protest' for Kujur, a Christian adivasi, who joined the party just a few years ago. Apart from being an inexperienced, junior candidate, he had been unsuccessful in the last Assembly elections also.
“We are not going to break party discipline, but we are not going to keep quiet either. We will request Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to allow us to vote for Manmohan Singh as our first reference candidate in the polls”, Dutta said.
The aggrieved MlAs would also meet party president Sonia Gandhi after the elections to convey their grievances and the repercussions within the party and the tea/Adivasi community over the nomination.
They also plan on finding out who 'misled' her over the choice of the second candidate.
However, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi defended the decision saying: “After much deliberation, our party High Command has decided to name Kujur and we accept it without opposing it. He (Dutta) is angry now and has expressed himself, but he also calms down easily.”
Assam PCC president Bhubaneswar Kalita also tried to play down the opposition saying that there are bound to be disagreements as the RS seats are limited and all cannot be pleased.
He said that the opposing MlAs will follow the party ruling and ensure the Congress' victory on May 30.
Kaltia also urged UPA coalition partner AIUDF to withdraw its candidate Aminul Islam in favour of the Congress, while AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal made a similar request to the Congress. Ajmal urged the Congress to withdraw from the second seat as they had left the first seat for the Prime Minister out of respect.