GUWAHATI: Ahead of the Rajya Sabha biennial election on March 31, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) has decided to support Congress candidate Ripun Bora, said AIUDF MLA and party General Secretary Aminul Islam. "All opposition parties are confident that, the candidate of the opposition will win one seat," Islam told ANI.
"We went to Delhi, where we had a meeting with Congress high command. We had meetings with two general secretaries of the AICC, Jitendra Singh and KC Venugopal. Sonia Gandhi requested AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal to support Congress. We agreed to support the Congress candidate," he added.
Elections to four Rajya Sabha seats in three Northeastern states - two seats in Assam and one each in Tripura and Nagaland will be held on March 31, the Election Commission had announced earlier this month.
Earlier on Saturday, Congress has named Rajya Sabha MP and former Assam president of the party Ripun Bora and Kerala Pradesh Mahila Congress president Jeby Mather for the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha from Assam and Kerala respectively.
Earlier this month the apex poll body had announced polls to fill 13 Rajya Sabha seats across six states falling vacant in April. These include Assam (two seats), Himachal (one seat), Nagaland (one seat), Tripura (one seat) and Kerala (three seats). Apart from this five seats from Punjab are also falling vacant with five members from the state retiring on April 9.
Scrutiny of nominations will take place on March 22. The last date for withdrawal of candidatures has been scheduled on March 24. The counting of votes of the poll scheduled on March 31 will take place on the day of polling from 5 pm onwards.