Campaign ends for third phase polling in Assam

Campaigning for the third and final phase of polling in four Lok Sabha seats of Assam ended at 4 PM on Sunday.

Polling will be held in Kokrajhar (ST), Dhubri, Barpeta and Gauhati constituencies on Tuesday to decide the fate of 54 candidates, including nine women.

The ruling BJP concentrated on the initiatives taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to develop Assam and the Northeastern region, including the inauguration of three bridges in the state.

The oppostion Congress and other parties highlighted the BJP's attempt to bring in the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and the alleged failure of the Modi government to fulfill the promises made before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Campaigning for the third phase was relatively low key though Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned for the BJP's Gauhati candidate Queen Oja on April 11. Most of the campaigning was done by state unit leaders.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and BJP state president Ranjeet Dass, Assam Pradesh Congress president Ripun Bora, leader of the opposition in the state assembly Debabrata Saikia participated in the campaign trail.

The highlight of the third phase campaign was the road shows by candidates of different parties.

State minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stole the show in most of the meetings and road shows with his dance moves on BJP's theme song 'Akou Ebar Modi Sarkar' (Modi Sarkar, once more), sung by popular Assamese singer Simanta Shekhar.

The campaign for this phase was mostly characterised by public rallies, roadside meetings and door-to-door visits.

There are two sitting MPs-AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal in Dhubri and independent Naba Sarania in Kokrajhar- besides state social welfare minister Pramila Rani Brahma of the BPF in Kokrajhar and Congress MLA Abdul Khaleque in the fray.

An electorate of 77,0622, including 38,15,335 men, 36,61,570 women and 157 of the third gender, will be eligible to exercise their franchise in 9,577 polling booths.