AGP announces Birendra Prasad Baishya as party candidate from Assam for upcoming RS polls
Baishya is currently serving as a member of the Rajya Sabha, with his tenure set to expire on June 14.
Earlier this week, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday announced the schedule for conducting biennial elections in eight Rajya Sabha seats, six from Tamil Nadu and two from Assam.
On Saturday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) named Kanad Purkayastha, son of former Union Minister and Assam State BJP co-founder Kabindra Purkayastha, as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha election in the state.
The two upper house members from Assam, Mission Ranjan Das (BJP) and Birendra Prasad Baishya (Asom Gana Parishad), are set to retire on June 14.
According to ECI, the elections for the Rajya Sabha seats will be held on June 19 between 9 AM and 4 PM. Counting of votes will be conducted on the same day.
In Tamil Nadu, Anbumani Ramadoss (Pattali Makkal Katchi), M Shanmugam (DMK), N Chandrasegharan (AIADMK), M Mohamed Abdulla (DMK), P Wilson (DMK), and Vaiko (MDMK) are set to retire on July 24.
Earlier, Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) Chief Kamal Haasan filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu in the presence of Chief Minister MK Stalin.
Meanwhile, BJP leader H Raja criticised MNM President Kamal Haasan, saying that the actor-turned-politician has 'mortgaged' his party to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in exchange for a Rajya Sabha seat.
'Everyone knows what Kamal Haasan did in the past. He opposed the DMK's freebies and corrupt rule. He even said he would never form an alliance with the DMK. Now, out of embarrassment, he has mortgaged his torchlight election symbol to the DMK in exchange for a Rajya Sabha seat. It is a waste of time to talk about him,' Raja said.
In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, each candidate requires a minimum of 34 votes to clinch a Rajya Sabha seat. The DMK-led INDIA bloc, with 158 MLAs (DMK: 133, Congress: 17, VCK: 4, CPI: 2, CPM: 2), is poised to win four seats comfortably. (ANI)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
17 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Row over letter leak: CPI(M) gears up to counter Congress-BJP ‘slander campaign' against top leadership
In the wake of a leaked letter purportedly addressed to its Polit Bureau, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] seemed poised to politically counter the Congress-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 'campaign', accusing top party leaders and their relatives of financial collusion with a UK-based businessperson from Kerala. In New Delhi, CPI(M) Kerala State secretary M.V. Govindan declined to comment on whether the Polit Bureau had received a confidential letter detailing the alleged financial nexus. 'Absurd questions do not merit answers', he said. Mr. Govindan ignored insistent questions about whether the media leak of the controversial document signalled divisions within the CPI(M)'s State leadership. The UK-based person's business partner-turned-rival had triggered a political controversy on Sunday (August 17, 2025) by claiming he had sent the letter confidentially to the Polit Bureau, and implicated the next of kin of a top leader for leaking the missive to his opponent to help the latter in a libel suit. The complaint emerged in the public domain somewhat sensationally after the NRI businessperson adduced as evidence in a defamatory suit filed by him against his business rival and some sections of the media in a Delhi court, for allegedly broadcasting that the CPI(M) had thrown him out of the venue of the party congress in Madurai in April 2025. Document 'inconsequential', says Sivankutty V. Sivankutty, Kerala's General Education Minister and CPI(M) State Committee member, said the Congress and the BJP were using the 'inconsequential' document as if it were empirical evidence to malign the Kerala government and the CPI(M) ahead of the local body polls later this year and the Assembly elections in 2026. Mr. Sivankutty stated that both parties have taken a page from the playbook they had used in the 2016 and 2021 Assembly elections to run a defamatory campaign against the CPI(M), its top leaders, and their families. Instead of making solid manifesto commitments on social welfare, employment and development, the Congress and the BJP, he stated, were again laying down a smokescreen of lies and ludicrous conspiracy theories in the vain hope that it would yield them rich dividends at the hustings in 2026. He said such slanderous campaigns against CPI(M) leaders would intensify, given the 'inevitability of a third Pinarayi Vijayan government.' 'The CPI(M) leadership will weigh the matter and provide the public clarity', he added.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
17 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Mamata to skip inauguration of Kolkata metro projects by PM Modi on Aug 22
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to skip the inauguration of three Kolkata metro projects by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 22, a top state government official said on Monday. Banerjee, during her tenure as the railway minister, had planned these metro projects, he claimed. The decision to skip the inauguration of the metro projects was taken in the backdrop of alleged harassment of migrants from West Bengal in the BJP-ruled states, he said. "There have been charges of linguistic discrimination and the harassment of the Bengalis in several states, with the alleged support of the BJP and the central government. Protests are underway to oppose such discriminatory treatment being meted out to Bengali migrants. In such a situation, the chief minister does not wish to share the stage with officials from the central government," the top bureaucrat told PTI. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a letter dated August 14, invited Banerjee to the inauguration of three metro projects on Friday. Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the Sealdah-Esplanade section of the Green Line, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (Ruby Crossing)-Beleghata stretch of the Orange Line, and Noapara-Jai Hind Bimanbandar (airport) section of the Yellow Line. "These railway projects were originally planned and funded by Mamata Banerjee during her tenure as the railway minister. After years of slow progress, the BJP is now inaugurating them before the elections to claim credit. The chief minister was only given a routine invitation via letter," the official claimed. The chief minister had, in the past, attended central government events to respect the constitutional protocol, he said. "But during these programmes, BJP supporters created chaos and acted disrespectfully, turning the official functions into political platforms. Given this into account, no option will be given for such unacceptable conduct," he added. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Time of India
17 minutes ago
- Time of India
‘EC Is Now BJP Commission': INDIA Bloc Slams CEC, Drops Hint On 'Impeachment' Amid Bihar SIR Row
/ Aug 18, 2025, 01:29PM IST INDIA bloc MPs, including Kharge, Akhilesh Yadav, Abhishek Banerjee, and Kanimozhi, protested outside Parliament over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, alleging BJP-EC collusion in 'vote chori.' Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi questioned why the Election Commission demanded an affidavit from Rahul Gandhi but not from BJP leaders. Akhilesh Yadav accused the EC of speaking directly to police officers during Mamata Banerjee's defeat and demanded caste-neutral appointments of BLOs and officers. RJD's Mrityunjay Tiwari alleged the Election Commission was behaving like a 'BJP commission' and slammed its silence on Anurag Thakur's controversial remarks.
