Congress outwits Opposition
In a nerve-wracking Rajya Sabha poll in Assam, the Congress checkmates the opposition to ensure the victory of its candidates.

THE ruling Congress has  checkmated a combined opposition in a nerve-wracking Rajya Sabha poll in Assam that saw its two candidates through by razor-thin margins and the CPI (M) sailed through in Tripura and the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) clinched the solitary contest in the State. The winners were Sylvius Condpan and Anwara Taimur (both of the Congress in Assam), sitting CPI (M) Rajya Sabha member Motilal Sarkar while DAN nominee T. R. Zeliang was elected to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Nagaland.

Earlier, nine candidates, including former Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill, the SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra (who died recently) and veteran Congress leader K Karunakaran, were declared elected unopposed on March 19 to the Upper House of Parliament.

In Assam, Congress’ first choice Sylvius Condpan got 43 votes while second choice former chief minister Anwara Taimur got 38 votes. The combined opposition candidate Birendra Prasad Baishya of Asom Gana Parishad got 39 votes. Mr. Baishya, however, lost the poll as Anowara Tamiur got more second preference votes. The AGP accused the Congress of horse trading but the fact stood that two of their own MLAs Abdul Jabbar    and Ali Akbar Miyan did not cast their ballot.

The two camps witnessed some tense moments as the opposition tried hard to get these two MLAs to vote in their favour. Both are apparently peeved at the anti-minority stand of AGP president Brindabon Goswami and persuasion did not yield any result. Moreover, one vote got cancelled and facilitated the Congress victory, which mustered all its strength to ensure the victory of both its candidates. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, announced that the victory once again justified the good work of  Assam Government. The Rajya Sabha battle had been a prestige issue for Mr. Gogoi and the Congress state unit president, Paban Singh Ghatowar. Mr. Condpan was the candidate of Mr. Ghatowar and Mrs. Taimur the last minute induction by Mr. Gogoi, as he was reportedly unhappy with Mr. Condpan’s candidature. In Agartala, Motilal Sarkar defeated Congress candidate Tapas Dey by 28 votes. Mr. Sarkar, an educationist-turned-politician, secured 40 votes, while Mr. Dey, a former Congress MLA, managed only 12 votes. Six opposition Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) members abstained from voting, while two MLAs, one each of the Congress and the CPI(M), could not cast their votes due to their illness. Out of the 60 MLAs, 52 members, including Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, his cabinet colleagues, Assembly Speaker Ramendra Debnath, Opposition Leader Ratan Lal Nath cast their votes. In the 60-member House, the ruling Left Front has a strength of 41, followed by Congress (13) and INPT (six). The INPT has recently joined the BJP-led NDA after snapping ties with the Congress. Since 1998, the ruling CPI (M)-led Left Front had been retaining  the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Tripura uninterruptedly. In Kohima, DAN nominee T. R. Zeliang defeated his rival Congress nominee C. Apok Jamir.

Nagaland Assembly secretary I. Soyah, who was the Returning Officer for the Rajya Sabha election, declared that Mr. Zeliang polled 43 votes against Mr Jamir’s 15. One vote was invalid and one member was absent in the sixty-member Assembly. After winning the election, Mr. Zeliang assured the people that he would work for a peaceful solution of the Naga political problem.

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