Guwahati: The campaign, fraught with accusations and promises galore, for the elections to the 126-member Assam Assembly ended at 5 pm on Tuesday, April 7.
The polls will be held on April 9 to decide the electoral fate of 722 candidates.
BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, attacked the Congress, accusing it of encouraging infiltrators to settle down in Assam’s land to create a vote bank, and failing to control insurgency and usher in development and employment during its rule.
The ruling party in the state asserted that it provided land ownership rights to tea garden workers, empowerment schemes to women, financial assistance for girl students, and brought down child marriage by 84 per cent.
The BJP leaders claimed the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) will be implemented in the state to prevent polygamy and promised that the journey of development will continue.
The opposition Congress and its alliance partners have accused the BJP of practising the ‘politics of hate’, indulging in widespread corruption, particularly by the CM and his family members, lopsided development, and not being serious about ensuring justice to popular singer Zubeen Garg, who died in Singapore on September 19 last year.
The Congress said that if voted to power, it would provide justice for Garg, cash assistance to women, a health insurance scheme to people, land rights for indigenous people and others.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma accused state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi and his wife of having links with Pakistan’s spy agency ISI.
On the other hand, the opposition party charged Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhuyan Sharma with owning multiple passports, properties in Dubai and assets in shell companies, which her husband did not mention in his poll affidavit.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other NDA leaders came to the state to canvass for the ruling coalition’s candidates, Congress functionaries like its president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha leader Rahul Gandhi campaigned for the party-led grouping.
The prominent candidates in fray are the Chief Minister, Congress’s Gaurav Gogoi, AIUDF Chief Badruddin Ajmal, assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary, leader of the opposition Debabrata Saikia, senior ministers Ranoj Pegu, Chandramohan Patowary, Atul Bora, Keshav Mahanta, Ajanta Neog, Ashok Singhal, Raijor Dal’s Chief Akhil Gogoi and AJP President Lurinjyoti Gogoi.
The ruling NDA’s main constituents are the BJP, Asom Gana Parishad and the Bodo Peoples’ Front, while the opposition alliance comprises the Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI(M), All Party Hill Leaders Conference and CPI(ML).
Elections in the state will be conducted in a single phase this time, unlike earlier occasions, when voting was held in multiple phases.
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