After withdrawal of nomination by two, 15 candidates to contest for the Silchar seat

March 17: Wednesday was the last date of withdrawal of nomination forms by the contesting candidates. A total of 19 candidates submitted their nomination for the prestigious Silchar seat. On 15 March, during scrutiny, the nominations of 2 persons were cancelled, which took the total number of contesting candidates to 15. However, on 17 March, 2 independent candidates had withdrawn their nominations. With this, a total of 15 candidates are now in the big fight.

This has also given a great relief to the Election Department. This is because one ballot unit of EVM is capable to record votes for 16 candidates. Now with the withdrawal of 2 nominations, the numbers of contesting candidates were reduced to 15. NOTA will occupy the last or 16^th position in the ballot unit. So now, Silchar constituency will not require a second ballot unit for the polls. The two independent candidates who had withdrawn their nominations are Jawaharla Goala and Ratan Dey.

There was a talk among the people of Silchar that Dilip Kumar Paul might withdraw his nomination on 17 March. However, that did not happen. So he is there very much in the game. Dilip Paul was assigned ‘helicopter’ symbol by the Returning Officer.

In 10-Sonai Assembly constituency, none have withdrawn their nomination. That means, a total of 14 candidates will be contesting for the Sonai seat including the outgoing MLA Animul Haque Laskar.

In 11-Dholai Assembly constituency, only 1 candidate has withdrawn his nomination. The independent candidate who has withdrawn his nomination is Phoni Bhusan Roy. That means, a total of 08 candidates will be contesting for the Dholai seat from where Parimal Suklabaidya of BJP was the last MLA.

Again, in 12-Udharbond Assembly constituency, none have withdrawn the nomination. So 7 candidates are finally in the game including the outgoing MLA Mihir Kanti Shome of BJP.

In 13-Lakhipur Assembly constituency too, none have withdrawn their nomination. That means a total of 6 candidates will be contesting for the Lakhipur seat.

In 14-Borkhola Assembly constituency, 01 independent candidate on Wednesday has withdrawn his nomination. So, now 14 contestants will fight the election for the Borkhola seat. The independent candidate who has withdrawn the nomination on Wednesday is Sahanur Alam Laskar.

In 15-Katigorah Assembly Constituency, 04 persons have withdrawn their nominations on Wednesday. All of them are independent candidates. They were identified as Santosh Roy, Samiran Dey, Sajal Kanti Das and Biman Roy. So finally, 15 candidates will be contesting the Assembly Elections from Katigorah.