The BPF, led by Hagrama Mohilary, severed ties with the BJP and joined Congress in February (Archive)
New Delhi / Guwahati:
Assam’s Bodoland Popular Front (BPF) moved to the Supreme Court on Sunday to call for the postponement of the elections in Tamulpur, after its candidate, Rangja Khungur Basumatary, defected to the BJP less than a week before and after the vote. of the deadline for the withdrawal of nominations.
Tamulpur is scheduled to vote on Tuesday, the third and final phase of the Assam elections.
On Friday, BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary wrote his second letter, in as many days, to the Electoral Commission, asking for permission to change the BPF candidate to the Tamulpur seat.
“Since the candidate nominated by my party has changed his political allegiance just days before the vote through illegal incentives, including bribery, he is no longer entitled to receive the votes under the BPF symbol,” Mohilary said in his letter.
He also said that Basumatary’s defection after the last date of withdrawal of the nomination was an “act of fraud” that violated the “basic requirement of fairness in the elections.”
“… for the sake of free and fair elections … this honorable commission is asked to consider allowing the BPF to immediately change its Tamulpur candidate … and to assign the party symbol to a new candidate, so as not to deny voters … the right and freedom to vote, “he said.
A day earlier, Mohilary wrote to request that the vote be canceled and an FIR (First Information Report) filed against Assam’s Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, who were present when Basumatary joined the BJP.
The head of the BJP, JP Nadda, the chief minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, and the head of the BJP of Assam, Ranjeet Kumar Dass, were also named, for allegedly luring Basumatary in a “fraudulent manner”.
The Bodoland Popular Front was once an ally of the BJP.
Mohilary’s party passed to Congress in February, after the BJP left it to ally with the United People’s Liberal Party (UPPL) to form the Bodoland Territorial Council last December.
The results of the Assam Assembly election are expected on May 2.
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