The Assam PCC has started scrutinising over 134 nominations filed by aspirants and is planning campaign strategies as the Lok Sabha election draws closer.
Assam PCC president Ripun Bora on Sunday announced that party president Rahul Gandhi will hold a public meeting on February 26 here while several other campaigns and rallies have been organised across the state.
Wednesday and Thursday were allotted to file nominations for 14 Lok Sabha constituencies and the aspirants were asked to deposit Rs 50,000 each.
“Altogether 134 nominations have been filed. We received 32 nominations, the highest this time, from Barpeta constituency followed by Dhubri with 25 nominations. Seven nominations were filed in Guwahati and only the sitting MPs — Gaurav Gogoi from Kaliabor and Sushmita Dev from Silchar — had filed from their respective constituencies,” Brojen Handique, PCC member handling the nominations, said.
For Guwahati constituency, Bobbeeta Sharma, who contested the 2016 Assembly election from Guwahati (East) constituency, and Manash Bora, who contested in the last Lok Sabha elections and was defeated by sitting BJP MP Bijoya Chakravarty, are in the fray among others.
“The party is conducting block-level meetings to gauge the popularity of the candidates in their respective constituencies. After that, meetings with district-level party workers will be held and then, the nominees will be shortlisted and the names sent to the Congress headquarters. The party candidates will be decided from the headquarters only,” a source in the party said.
On Rahul Gandhi’s visit, Ripun Bora said, “The PCC had invited Rahul Gandhi to thank him for the crucial role he played in stopping the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, from being tabled in the Rajya Sabha. He wanted to address the people of Assam and a massive rally will be organised on February 26.” He said the party has started its election campaign on a “war footing” and its commitment to the people of Assam will “trump” the big-budget campaigns of the BJP.
The party on Sunday released 12 short videos in which it flagged different issues pertinent to Assam to convince the voters to vote for the Congress.
