Guwahati, June 13: The BJP’s Kanad Purkayastha and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) veteran Birendra Prasad Baishya have been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Assam, an election official confirmed on Friday.
With no Opposition parties fielding candidates, the two National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominees were declared elected on Thursday, the last day for filing nominations. The Rajya Sabha elections were originally scheduled for June 19. This marks the parliamentary debut of Kanad Purkayastha, who currently serves as the BJP’s state secretary.
A native of Silchar, he is the son of late BJP stalwart and former Union minister Kabindra Purkayastha. Baishya, a senior AGP leader and former Union minister, returns to the Upper House for a third term.
He has also previously represented Assam in the Lok Sabha. The vacancies arose as the terms of Baishya and BJP’s Mission Ranjan Das are set to expire on June 14. Assam has a total of seven seats in the Rajya Sabha.
The BJP holds four, while its allies AGP and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) hold one each. The remaining seat is held by an Independent member. After the Trinamool Congress’ Sushmita Dev, who was elected to the Upper House of Parliament from West Bengal, Purkayastha would be the second Rajya Sabha member from the Barak Valley region in Assam.
Hailing from Silchar, Dev, daughter of former Union Minister and late Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev, was earlier elected to the Lok Sabha from Silchar parliamentary constituency.
Over four million people, mostly Bengali speaking, reside in the three districts of the Barak Valley region in Southern Assam — Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi. Political observers said that despite the Barak Valley’s substantial population and political significance, only former four-time MLA Mission Ranjan Das was sent to the Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket for a brief period.
Purkayastha’s nomination is an attempt to deal with this gap and aims to strengthen the BJP’s base among Bengali Hindus in Barak Valley. The Purkayastha family has been influential in Assam’s political circle as veteran leader Kabindra Purkayastha’s legacy and Kanad’s active participation in the BJP’s political activities contribute to the family’s persistent prominence in Assam politics.
IANS