45 candidates have filed nomination for 5 Lok Sabha seats

[caption id="attachment_240452" align="alignnone" width="550"] BJP candidate Topan Kumar Gogoi files his nomination papers for Jorhat constituency to the returning officer as Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and NEDA Chairman Himanta Biswa Sharma look on, ahead of the Parliamentary elections, in Jorhat on Monday.[/caption] Guwahati, March 25 (PTI): Altogether 45 candidates have filed their papers for the five Lok Sabha seats in Assam till Monday, the last date for the filling of nomination for the first phase of parliamentary polls in the state, officials said. The five Lok Sabha seats that goes to polls in the first phase on April 11 are Tezpur, Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur. In Tezpur, 10 candidates, including state minister Pallab Lochan Das of the BJP and retired bureaucrat M G V K Bhanu of the Congress have filed their papers, officials said. In Kaliabor, seven candidates including sitting Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi and AGP's new entrant Moni Madhab Mahanta have filed their nomination papers. In Jorhat, eight candidates including state minister Tapan Gogoi of BJP and former Congress MLA Sushanta Borgohain have filed their papers. In Dibrugarh, sitting BJP MP Rameswar Teli and former Union Minister and Congress veteran Paban Singh Ghatowar are among the eight candidates who have filed their nomination papers, they said. In Lakhimpur, sitting BJP MP Pradan Baruah and Anil Borgohain of the Congress were among the 12 candidates to have filed their papers. The scrutiny for the five Lok Sabha seats will be held on March 26 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is March 28. Fourteen nominations have been also filed for the five Lok Sabha constituencies - Karimganj (SC), Silchar, Autonomous District , Mangaldai and Nowgong which goes to polls in the second phase on April 18. Prominent candidates who filed their nominations for the second phase include sitting Congress MP from Silchar Sushmita Dev and her rival Rajdeep Roy of BJP, sitting AIUDF MP from Karimganj (SC) Radheshyam Biswas, sitting Congress MP from Autonomous District  Biren Singh Engti. The last day for filing of nominations for the second phase is Tuesday and scrutiny is on March 27 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is March 29. Polls for the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam will be held in three phases - five in first, five in second and four in the third and final phase on April 23. In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won seven seats, Congress three, AIUDF three and an Independent candidate one seat in Assam. BJP replaces 4 sitting MPs with fresh faces in Assam The BJP has dropped four sitting MPs of Assam and replaced them with fresh faces, including two ministers, to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Sitting MPs Bijoya Chakravarty, Ramen Deka and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa were not named in the party's first list of candidates, while Ram Prasad Sarmah's name did not figure in the second list. The party selected former city mayor Queen Ojha for Guwahati seat in place of former union minister and three-time MP Bijoya Chakravarty, while BJP state general secretary Dilip Saikia was nominated in place of two-time MP and the party's former state president Ramen Deka for Mangaldai constituency. Power Minister Topon Kumar Gogoi is contesting in Jorhat in place of sitting MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, while Labour, Employment and Tea Tribes Welfare Minister Pallab Lochan Das has been named as the candidate for Tezpur instead of Ram Prasad Sarmah. Sharma in a Facebook post on March 16 had said, "I have left BJP today. I really feel pained in my heart for those old BJP workers of Assam who are most neglected in the Party by the new intruders in the Party". Sharma's candidature was at stake since his daughter's arrest in connection with the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) scam where she had earlier been selected as an Assam Police Service officer. Nineteen Assam government officers, including Sharma's daughter, were arrested in July last year in Guwahati as their handwriting did not match with that in their answer sheets in the APSC examination held in 2016. Meanwhile, state Congress spokesperson Apurba Bhattacharya claimed that the BJP dropped its sitting MPs as their performance in the Lok Sabha during the past five years was not up to the mark. "Many of the BJP parliamentarians failed to utilise their share of funds sanctioned under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) Scheme", Bhattacharya alleged. "We are confident that the Congress will perform well under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. We will win more seats than the BJP in Assam," he added. Of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam, seven are held by the BJP, three each by the Congress and the AIUDF, while one by an Independent. The three-phase Lok Sabha polls in Assam will be held on April 11, 18 and 23, while the results will be announced on May 23 along with the rest of the country.