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AGP fields Mahanta's wife

The Asom Gana Parishad has fielded Dr Jayashree Goswami Mahanta, Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's wife, from the Nagaon constituency.

She will replace Union Minister of State for Human Resources Muhiram Saikia. A lecturer of zoology, Dr Mahanta has also written stories for children.

In the list released on Tuesday, the AGP announced it would contest nine seats. This leaves five tickets to its allies.

Except for Saikia, the party's four other MPs have been renominated. Union Minister of Steel and Mines Birendra Prasad Baishya will contest the election from Mangaldoi.

The AGP has given the Dhusri seat to Communist Party of India candidate and former deputy speaker Giasuddin Ahmed. The CPI-M's Nurul Huda and sitting MP Uddhab Burman will contest from Silchar and Barpeta constituencies respectively.

The other AGP candidates are Durga Dasboro (Kokrajhar), Deb Kumar Bora (Jorhat), Keshab Mahanta (Kaliabor), Dr Prabin Sharma (Guwahati), Gautam Das (Karimganj), Dr Arun Sharma (Lakhimpur) and Kartik Hazarika (Tezpur).

The AGP has also extended support to Elwin Teron, an independent candidate, for the Diphu (autonomous) seat.

The candidate for the Dibrugarh seat still remains to be finalised. The seat was offered to the Janata Dal, which rejected it. The AGP had earlier nominated Onkarmal Agarwalla as its second choice.

Meanwhile, the final list of Congress candidates is expected after Sonia Gandhi's visit to Guwahati on Tuesday. Its first list has cleared the names of former Union ministers Santosh Mohan Dev for Silchar and Paban Singh Ghatowar for Dibrugarh.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has cleared eight candidates in the state.

UNI

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