2016 Assam Assembly Elections - AGP Comes Out With First List Of 25 Candidates Thursday March 10,2016

Important dates:

	Phase 1	Phase 2
Date of Issue of Gazette Notification	March 11	March 14
Last Date for Nominations	March 18	March 22
Date for Scrutiny of Nominations	March 19	March 24
Last date for withdrawal of candidatures	March 21	March 26
Date of poll	April 4	April 11
Counting	May 19	May 19

Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), BJP's Assam Assembly election ally Thursday March 10,2016 announced the first list of its 25 candidates for the hustings including the names of former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, former ministers and its president Atul Bora.

Among the 25 contestants are former two-time chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta (Barhampur), ex-ministers Brindaban Goswami (Tezpur), Renupama Rajkhowa (Teok), Pradeep Hazarika (Amguri), Pabindra Deka (Patacharkuchi), Dr Kamala Kanta Kalita (Chaygaon), Ramendra Narayan Kalita (Guwahati West), Mr Bora said.

The others in the list include sitting MLAs Binod Gowala (Sarupathar), Utpal Dutta (Lakhimpur), Prabin Hazarika (Bwiswanath), Phani Bhusan Choudhury (Bongaigaon), Bhupen Rai (Abhayapuri-North), Mukundaram Choudhury (Kalaigaon), Kesab Mahanta (Kaliabor).

Besides party president Atul Bora (Bokakhat), the others are Bhabendra Nath Bharali (Dergaon-SC), Naren Sonowal (Naharkatia), Dr Ali Azam Sheikh (Bilasipara-East), Rabin Banikya (Abhayapuri-South), Gunindra Nath Das (Barpeta), Jyotiprasad Das (Boko-SC), Satyabrata Kalita (Kamalpur), Habibur Rahman (Dalgaon), Ranjit Deka (Lahorighat) and Ziauddin Ahmed (Jamunamukh)

Reversal of fortunes for AGP, BJP since poll debut in 1985

 

The AGP was born in 1985, soon after its members in their earlier avatar as student leaders signed the Assam Accord to end a six-year agitation to rid the state of illegal migrants. It rode an emotional wave to bag 67 of the 126 assembly seats in the year-ending election.
The BJP cut a sorry figure in that election. It could muster only 3.56% votes and 34 of its 37 contestants forfeited their deposits.
The AGP, however, was never the same. Its best performance since 1985 was in the 1996 election where it won 59 seats — five less than a simple majority in the House.
The BJP’s performance has improved since 1985 but it has never been able to win more than 10 seats (1991 and 2006) or more than 26.31% of the vote share that translated into only eight seats in 2001.
Much of BJP’s optimism this election is based on its 2014 Lok Sabha show where it won seven parliamentary seats riding the Narendra Modi wave.