Dhemaji, March 20: Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and AGP president and agriculture minister Atul Bora today appealed to the Dhemaji unit of the party not to put up any candidate in the Dhemaji Assembly bypoll on April 9.

The BJP's Ranoj Pegu and Congress's Babul Sonowal, in the meantime, filed their nominations today.

Despite the appeal made by Bora and Sonowal, the Dhemaji unit of the AGP has so far remained firm on its decision to field Paramananda Sonowal as an Independent candidate.

The AGP's Dhemaji unit is miffed at the party's decision to leave the seat to its ally, the BJP.

The secretary of the AGP's Dhemaji district, Tulon Konwar, told The Telegraph that Bora and the chief minister today urged them not to put up any candidate but they (AGP) have not changed its decision.

"Our high-powered committee will meet tomorrow at 9am to discuss the appeal made by our party president and the chief minister," Konwar said. Tomorrow is the last date for filing nominations.

BJP candidate Ranoj Pegu, accompanied by Sonowal, Atul Bora, BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary, Lakhimpur MP Pradan Baruah, Jonai MLA Bhuban Pegu and cultural affairs minister Naba Kumar Doley, filed his nomination around 1.30pm.

On the Lower Subansiri hydro power project, Pegu said development of the state would be possible only if there was sufficient power.

He, however, added that all protective measures must be taken by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) to ensure that the people living downstream were not adversely affected by the dam.

The chief minister promised all-round development of Dhemaji by his government and appealed to the people to vote for Pegu.

Congress nominee Babul Sonowal filed his nomination at 11.30am. He was accompanied by party leaders Sushil Pegu, Joy Parkash Das and others.

Babul appealed to the people to vote for him and said if he were elected he would work hand-in-hand with them for development.

The byelection to Dhemaji constituency, which is reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates, was necessitated because of election of the sitting BJP MLA, Pradan Baruah, to the Lok Sabha in November.

The scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on Wednesday and the last date of withdrawal of nomination is Friday.

Counting of votes will take place on April 13.

Dhemaji constituency was an AGP stronghold from 1985 till 2006 when it went to Congress.

The constituency was with the Congress till last year's Assembly poll when BJP's Pradan Baruah defeated Congress candidate Sumitra Patir.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY PANKAJ SARMA IN GUWAHATI