Will the Congress-BPF combine sail through easily?

GUWAHATI, February 6: The much-hyped Rajya Sabha polls in Assam for three seats will be held on Friday, and the three names will be clear by Friday evening among Congress candidates Bhubaneswar Kalita and Sanjay Sinh, BPF candidate Biswajit Daimary and Opposition consensus candidate Haidar Hussain.

As per the strength of the Assam Assembly, the Congress-BPF alliance could win in two seats. And if the Opposition is intact, the third seat will go to it.

This time, if all the 126 MLAs cast their votes, a candidate requires a minimum of 32 votes. The combined Opposition (AGP, BJP and AIUDF) has exactly 32 votes. But if even one Opposition MLA is absent or his vote is cancelled, then the Congress-BPF combine will win all the three seats.

At the last moment, interestingly, there is some problem in the Opposition camp. AIUDF MLA Ataur Rahman Majarbhuyan had gone for Haj pilgrimage to Mecca about a fortnight ago. He was scheduled to arrive in India on February 7. Since Rajya Sabha election will be held on February 7, the AIUDF had given him an alternative flight ticket from Mecca to Mumbai on February 6. AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal had also said that Ataur Rahman would be arriving Guwahati on time and cast his vote in favour of Haidar Hussain.

However, at 5 pm on Thursday Samsul Haque Choudhury, a person claiming as the personal secretary of Ataur Rahman, said that Rahman had given a phone call to him saying that he would be arriving in India on February 7 as per the earlier schedule and he would not be able to cast his vote for the Rajya Sabha poll.

The Rajya Sabha poll in Assam will be over by 4 pm on Friday. And Ataur Rahman will reach Mumbai only in the evening of Friday.

If Ataur Rahman is really absent, and as Assam Health and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed on Wednesday that the picture of the Rajya Sabha poll would be clear by 5 pm on Thursday, the biggest question is whether there is any nexus between the Congress and the AIUDF MLA in question.

If Rahman is absent, the Opposition will be in deep trouble, and its only option will be to take the support of Trinamool Congress MLA Dipen Pathak.

Talking to The Sentinel on Thursday, Pathak said, ‘‘I shall be happy if I get a chance to vote for Opposition consensus candidate Haidar Hussain. But my party high command will tell me who I should cast my vote for. Whatever the high command says, I shall abide by.’’

Now the Congress has 79 votes, with the BPF having 12 votes and two Independents — Jatin Mali (Palasbari) and Javed Islam (Mankachar) — who are going to vote for the Congress-BPF combine. In this combination, the Congress-BPF combine has 93 votes in its favour.

Polling will begin at 9 am and end by 4 pm. The counting of votes will start at 5 pm.

(Source)The Sentinel — The Largest Media group of North-East India — focused on news publishing. Combined circulation of the group is over 120,000 newspapers per day, making it the largest newspaper group in the region. The Sentinel is the only English daily in the Northeast India with five editions published simultaneously from Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Shillong, Silchar and Itanagar. For all local, national and international news please visit http://www.sentinelassam.com/