Congress and ally sweep Assam RS poll: Joint opposition candidate bites dust

GUWAHATI: Assam Congress proved too good for the combined Opposition that failed to get its joint candidate elected to the Rajya Sabha, as Congress and its ally Bodoland Peoples’ Front swept the polls held on Friday. Sultanpur MP and ‘Amethi’s raja’ Sanjay Singh, PCC president Bhubneswar Kalita and BPF leader Biswajit Daimary were the three elected to the Upper House from Assam.

With these, Congress and BPF have cornered all seven Rajya Sabha seats from Assam. In the last six years, opposition parties have not been able to send a single candidate to the house of elders. Congress brandished the victory as its reply to BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s Mahajagran rally in Guwahati on Saturday.

AGP-BJP-AIUDF backed Independent, Haider Hussain, could muster only 26 first-preference votes despite the combine having 32 votes needed to elect an MP. Around six votes were invalid and All India United Democratic Front’s ARM Bhuyan failed to reach back after Haj on time.

Kalita and Singh managed 32 votes each and Daimary got 29 first preferences and 64 second preference votes much more than what Hussain managed. Padma Hazarika of AGP, whose vote was invalid was expelled from the party, even as Congress celebrated.