Guwahati: Congress candidates Ripun Borah and Ranee Narah today filed their nominations for the two Rajya seats in Assam which will fall vacant next month.
While Borah was the former state Education minister, Narah was a Union minister in the previous UPA government.
Bora will be the party's first preference candidate and Narah will be the second preference candidate.
The duo filed their nominations before the Assam Legislative Assembly's Principal Secretary M K Deka, an Assembly spokesperson said.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and Assam Pradesh Congress Chief Anjan Dutta were also present on the occasion.
The Chief Minister claimed that both the candidates will sail through as the Congress enjoys an absolute majority in the state assembly with more than 80 MLAs to vote for the party nominees.
The Congress currently has 69 MLAs in the 126-member house with nine of its former members, who joined the BJP last year, disqualified from the Assembly. Elections to the Rajya Sabha was necessitated following the scheduled retirement of two Congress members Naznin Faruque and Pankaj Bora on April two next.
Bora, who had represented Gohpur Assembly constituency for two terms since 2001, was the state education minister from 2006 but was removed after he was arrested by CBI in connection with a bribery case 2008.
Bora was accused of attempting to bribe CBI officials in connection with the killing of Daniel Toppo, a political opponent.
He was subsequently discharged in both the bribery and the murder cases. His wife Monika Bora went on to represent the Gohpur assembly constituency in 2011 assembly polls.
Former Union Minister Ranee Narah in the UPA II government had lost the last Lok Sabha polls from Lakhimpur to Union Minister and BJP Chief Minister candidate in Assam Sarbananda Sonowal.
While the last date of filing nominations for the polls is today, scrutiny will be held tomorrow, withdrawal on March 14 and polling will be held on March 21 next.
