NCP to contest 10 LS seats in Assam

GUWAHATI, August 22: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today announced its first list of candidates, whose names were cleared by the party's core committee yesterday, for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in the Northeast States. The party will contest 10 seats of its own out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The NCP general secretary and former Lok Sabha Speaker, Purno A Sangma told a press conference that the party had, so far, finalised the names of four candidates for Assam. The names of candidates for the remaining six seats will be declared on August 30 next. The party will field Subhas Mohan Deb, younger brother of former Union minister and Congress leader Santosh Mohan Deb, from Silchar. Former state legislator, Samsul Huda will be the NCP candidate from Kaliabor constituency while former Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) minister, Prodip Gogoi and former minister in the Hiteswar Saikia government, Kul Bahadur Chetri, will be contest from Jorhat and Tezpur Lok Sabha constituencies, respectively. Sangma said his party had come to an electoral understanding with the United Minorities Front (UMF) led by HRA Choudhury regarding the Barpeta and Nagaon constituencies. "We will back the UMF candidate in Barpeta and Nagaon," he said, adding that NCP would not contest Kokrajhar and Diphu Lok Sabha seats. The NCP candidates for Dhubri, Lakhimpur, Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Mangaldoi, and Karimganj will be decided on August 30. Sangma himself is the NCP candidate from Tura in Meghalaya. He has been elected from Tura to the Lower House six times since 1977. Regarding the Shillong seat in Meghalaya, Sangma said the NCP was still trying for an electoral understanding with the United Democratic Front (UDF). He said the final picture regarding Shillong would emerge after three days. In Arunachal Pradesh, the NCP will contest both the seats. The party announced the name of Toko Kachi as its candidate for the Arunachal West seat. The candidate for Arunachal East seat will be announced on August 30. The NCP also announced its first list of 11 candidates for the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly polls. Elections to the two Lok Sabha seats and the 60 Assembly seats in Arunachal Pradesh will be held simultaneously. Regarding the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland, Sangma said the NCP would support the combined Opposition candidate of the Nationalist Democratic Movement (NDM) and Naga People's Convention (NPC), Shurhozelie. The party will not field any candidate for the Mizoram seat while it is yet to take a decision regarding the two in Manipur. In Tripura, it will support the Tripura Upajati Juba Samity (TUJS) candidate for the Tripura East seat while in Tripura West it will support Independent Ajoy Biswas.