Apart from the 18 members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including the Bharatiya Janata Party, seven non-National Democratic Alliance parties will attend the ceremony, going by their stated position on the issue which has snowballed into another political flashpoint between the ruling and opposition camps.
In the heart of lower Assam -- Nalbari, Baksa and Barpeta districts -- the battle of ballot is basically confined to the regional Asom Gana Parishad and the ruling Congress majority of the total 14 constituencies, while the All India United Democratic Front and the Bodo People's Front are emerging front runners in rest of the constituencies.
The death toll on Wednesday climbed to 68 in the series of attacks by suspected Bodo militants belonging to the National Democratic Front of Bodoland faction in Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts of Assam while the Centre was rushing additional forces to the state.
While the BPF and the UPPL are considered rivals in the Bodo-dominated areas, there was no pre-poll alliance among other parties as well.
'The message has gone loud and clear (among the people of Assam) that the BJP is only interested in polarising (the country) and they are basically interested in (capturing votes in) the Hindi heartland and they don't bother much about rest of India.'
The Congress' Assam unit is banking heavily on party veterans to win the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, indicates a list of the 11 candidates released by the party. The party is contesting from 13 LS constituencies out of the total 14 seats. It has left one seat to its ally Bodo People's Front.Candidates from Lakhimpur and Dhubri are yet to be announced.
The ruling Congress has so far decided on party nominees for six Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam while names of prospective candidates for the rest of the constituencies have been screened and sent to the central election committee of the party for final selection.
Taking tough, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday declared that strong action will be taken against NDFB(S), which massacred over 70 people in Assam on Tuesday, asserting that the Centre has "zero tolerance" policy for such "crafted terror".
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa on Tuesday said that the Centre is likely to sign a peace accord with militant organisations from the state's Adivasi communities within September.
Even if the Congress is unable to defeat the political appeal of Narendra Modi, the resources and talent of the BJP and its managers, it is relying on issues like the Citizenship Amendment Act and the perceived threat to Assamese identity, along with the future threat of the National People's Register to ensure it continues to be a force in the state. Aditi Phadnis reports.
Electioneering for the third and the final phase of polling in Assam to be held on April 24 in six constituencies - Gauhati, Dhubri, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, Mangaldoi and Nowgong -- came to an end on Tuesday afternoon with the election department expecting a high turn out on the basis of overwhelming response of voters in the last two phases of polling in the state.
One militant was neutralised by the security forces.
"We did not vote for the BPF (Bodoland People's Front) candidate in Lok Sabha polls, that's why we were attacked," alleged 75-year-old Iman Ali.
During scrutiny of over 24,000 and 8,000 applications filed for rehabilitation by the displaced Muslims in Kokrajhar and Chirang respectively, the administration found that 7,000 and 6,000 people had no land documents. He is a look at life in some of the camps
The Janata Dal-United on Tuesday became the third major ally after the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal to snap ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party after 2019.
Shah said the ULFA, the oldest insurgent group of Assam, agreed to abjure violence, disband the organisation and join the democratic process.
Women staged a semi-nude protest in Assam's largest city Guwahati against an eviction drive in Silsako Beel (lake) area on Friday, as excavators ravaged to the ground several houses to clear alleged encroached land of the wetland.
An estimated 10,000 people have fled in the past 24 hours after rumours of a threat to their lives.
Sonowal, who steered the BJP to victory in the elections, has put the issue of infiltration and attempts to check them as his government's priority.
The party has forged ties with Bodo People's Front; continues talks with AGP.
Addressing a massive public rally to celebrate the signing of the accord on January 27 that is expected to bring lasting peace to the troubled state, Modi said now the time was to work together for peace and development of the North-East.
We are definite that we will form the government here," Sonowal told media persons.
A summit meeting between Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe, scheduled to be held in Guwahati in December, was also cancelled due to the anti-CAA protests.
'Tarun Gogoi is incompetent to be chief minister. We heard Intelligence had warned him about possible aggression. Why did Gogoi fail to react?' 'Modi and his men have been spreading separatist messages across Assam for years. There is no way the BJP can shake off its responsibility now.' Former Assam minister Rameswar Dhanowar, who demanded Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's resignation for his failure to prevent the recent violence in Bodoland Territorial Areas District, speaks to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday alleged that if the Congress-All India United Democratic Front combine come to power in Assam they will open 'all gates' to welcome infiltrators.
Bodoland People's Front leader and executive member of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council Mono Kumar Brahma was remanded to 14-day judicial custody by the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Kokrajhar on Monday. The BPF leader was later admitted to Rupnath Brahma Civil Hospital in Kokrajhar after he fell ill.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has announced that the National Investigation Agency would probe the brutal NDFB (S) attacks on adivasis and its violent aftermath in Assam, which left 78 "poor and innocent" people dead.
'The violence that shook Assam was a direct outcome of the state's ethnic problem... The tension that created a rift between the Bodos and the non-Bodos for years found a blood-spattered expression.' Former NSG chief Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Kokrajhar, speaks to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com about last week's carnage in Assam.
The Assam government has set up an eight-member committee to prepare a framework for implementation of all clauses of the 36-year-old Assam Accord, especially the Clause-6 report prepared by a central panel pertaining to protecting the cultural, social and linguistic identity and heritage of the indigenous people, officials said on Saturday.
The constituencies spread across lower and central Assam will have 12,699 polling stations where 1,04,35,271 voters will be able exercise their franchise.
The Centre's decision to constitute a one-member panel headed by former Union Home Secretary G K Pillai to consider the demand for a separate Bodoland state has triggered fresh unrest in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas of Assam.
One of its cadres was shot dead by security forces.
Indefinite curfew was clamped in Kokrajhar district of Assam on Thursday morning as fresh tension gripped the violence-affected district over the arrest of Kokrajhar West constituency legislator from Bodoland People's Front, Pradeep Brahma by the police late Wednesday night.
Operations were on Friday intensified against NDFB-S militants along the border with Arunachal Pradesh even as the death toll in the massacre rose to 81.
The AGP, an ally of the BJP, voted for the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha, after Amit Shah's assurance. However, the scale, intensity and, persistence of the anti-CAA protests since then have taken it by surprise.
The three Premier League and three La Liga clubs in the last eight avoided each other, with Manchester City up against Atletico Madrid and Liverpool to face Portuguese side Benfica.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said efforts are on to remove AFSPA completely from the northeast region.
The saffron party won 60 of the 126 seats, its allies Asom Gana Parishad nine and United Peoples Party (Liberal) six. Congress bagged 29 seats, its partner All India United Democratic Front 16 and Bodo Democratic Front four.
The violence in lower Assam has once again brought to the fore the problem of illegal migration and its impact on the socio-economic situation in the state, which had witnessed prolonged unrest on the explosive issue back in the 80s.
A civilian was killed and two army jawans when a group of suspected militants suspected of the anti-talks National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction) ambushed an army search party at Amjora village under Kajigaon police station in western Assam's Kokrajhar district on Wednesday.
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