Assam: Sarbananda Sonowal, the Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, as well as the Minister of AYUSH and former Assam chief minister, filed his nomination for the vacant Rajya Sabha seat in Assam on Tuesday. The by-poll election is slated for October 4th. Sonowal had won the last assembly election from Majuli and was subsequently inducted into the union cabinet in July.
Present with him were chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, minister Atul Bora of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), BJP state president Bhabesh Kalita and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) president Pramod Bodo.
Earlier, former Bodoland Peoples’ Party (BPF) leader Biswajit Daimary resigned and joined BJP, leaving the current Rajya Sabha seat vacant. Later, he was contested as a saffron party candidate and speaker in the assembly elections.
CM Sarma congratulated taking to his Twitter handle which read- “We’ve immensely gained from vision & leadership of Union Min @ Sarbananda Sonowal. I accompanied him for filing his nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat. He is a unanimous candidate of BJP, AGP and UPPL and many esteemed leaders joined Sonowal Dangoriya today”.
As the Congress and other opposition parties have yet to name a candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections, Sonowal is projected to win the election unopposed. The deadline for submitting nominations is scheduled for Wednesday this week.