At least 176 candidates, including BJP leaders Siddhartha Bhattacharya and Himanta Biswa Sarma have filed their nomination papers for the second phase of Assembly election in Assam on April 11, an election department spokesperson said today.
Altogether 561 candidates remained in the fray for the first phase of polling on April 4 after 25 independent candidates withdrew their papers on the last day of withdrawal today.
The spokesperson said, 176 persons across 61 constituencies have filed their papers for the second phase, for which the last date for filing nomination is tomorrow.
The scrutiny of these papers will be done on March 24 and the last date for withdrawing the same is March 26.
For the 65 constituencies of the first phase, papers of 586 candidates were found valid, and 13 were rejected.
"Out of these 586, 25 withdrew their papers today. All of them were independent candidates," the spokesperson said.
With this, 561 candidates remain in the contest and will try their luck on April 4 for the 65 seats out of a 126-seat Assembly.
The counting of votes in all constituencies will take place on May 19.
