Campaign ends for first phase of LS polls in Assam

Guwahati: The campaigning for the first phase of Lok Sabha polls in Assam concluded on Wednesday. Voting will take place in five constituencies of the state on April 19.

A total of 35 candidates are contesting for five seats -- Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaziranga, Sonitpur, and Lakhimpur, with two Rajya Sabha MPs, three Lok Sabha MPs and one MLA locked in the contest.

Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who is contesting from Dibrugarh, and Gaurav Gogoi, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha will contest on the Congress ticket in Jorhat.

A strong contest awaits in the Jorhat seat where Gaurav Gogoi will take on BJP MP Topon Gogoi.

Gogoi was forced to relocate his seat from the former Kaliabor — which was renamed Kaziranga after delimitation last year — to Jorhat.

In the Kaziranga seat, both prominent candidates Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, the Rajya Sabha MP for the BJP and Roselina Tirkey belong to the tea garden workers community.

With eleven contenders, Kaziranga has the most in the race.

There are eight candidates in Sonitpur, and the seat is likely to witness a triangular contest involving AAP's Rishiraj Kaundinya, Congress candidate Prem Lal Ganju, and BJP MLA Ranjit Dutta.

Uday Shankar Hazarika of the Congress is in a direct race with incumbent BJP MP Pradan Baruah in Lakhimpur, where there are nine candidates.

In the first phase, a total of 86,68,239 electorate including 43,93,512 women voters will exercise their voting rights in 10,001 polling booths.