Guwahati, Oct. 13: The AGP today returned a favour by leaving the South Salmara Assembly seat to its alliance partner, the BJP, for the November 7 byelections.

BJP state vice-president Palit Bora said AGP working president Phani Bhusan Choudhury had informed him about the decision to leave the seat to the BJP which had yesterday left the Dhekiajuli seat to the AGP.

The byelections to the two seats have been necessitated by the election of sitting MLAs Badruddin Ajmal (South Salmara) and Joseph Toppo (Dhekiajuli) to the Lok Sabha.

Bora further said there were three aspirants for the South Salmara seat and the candidate would be announced only after October 16. The three in contention are Prof. Safiqul Hussain, Julie Begum (who heads the Jorhat district minority morcha and had earlier sought the Dhubri ticket for the Lok Sabha elections), and Mukelesh Rahman.

“Now that we will be contesting, the number of aspirants may increase,” Bora added.

“If the BJP fields a candidate, it will not be as much about winning than conveying a message to the minority voters in the state. The constituency has 96 per cent minority voters,” one of them said.

Though the AGP has sorted out its issues with the BJP, it has not been able to finalise the candidate for Dhekiajuli. Leading the race is Apurba Bhattacharjee while Toppo’s daughter Ranjita has also emerged as a potential candidate, party insiders said.

On the other hand, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) is likely to announce its candidates “anytime” but indications are that president Badruddin Ajmal’s eldest son Abdur Rahman Ajmal, is likely to be the candidate for the South Salmara seat.