Nagaon, Mar 16 : Former Dima Hasao district chief executive member, who is now in jail, Mohit Hojai, will contest from Haflong constituency as an Independent in the Assembly election.
Hojai’s relatives and advocate collected his nomination paper for the Haflong seat on March 11. It will be submitted within the next two days.
A source close to Hojai’s family today said shortage of a relevant document (oath of affirmation) stood in the way of submitting the nomination before the last date, which is March 17.
Dima Hasao additional deputy commissioner G.K. Pegu said Hojai’s supporters today collected the oath of affirmation during office hours.
“Four candidates, including Hojai, collected nomination papers for the Haflong constituency so far. These include Congress ticket holder G.C. Langthasa, AGP candidate I. Zeme and BJP’s Kulendra Daulogupu. However, no nomination has been submitted. We think the process of submitting the nomination papers will start from tomorrow,” Pegu said.
Hojai was arrested on May 31, 2009, for his alleged financial misdeeds and his nexus with the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the DHD. He has since been in jail.
“After all, he is a leader. In 2007, he was elected the member of the autonomous council from Kalachand defeating Congress candidate Jayanta Kharikapsa with a big margin. We think Hojai still has some supporters and well-wishers in the district. It seems he wants to establish his relevance in the politics of the hill district,” a source of the Dima Hasao autonomous council said.
A Dima Hasao district election office source said Hojai’s accusation and the chargesheet against him could not serve as a document to cancel his nomination.
“There will be an affidavit along with the nomination and we will consider what is written in that. If any challenge comes that will be a court-level matter and it can’t push us to cancel the nomination,” the source said.
The hill district has 189 polling stations, including 51 sensitive ones, for 135,188 voters.
“Video recording inside all the polling stations, additional security personnel, movement of micro observers and sector officers and all other measures will be taken in hands for free and fair polling here. We want 19 companies of security forces and if that is received, the number of security personnel in the polling stations will be doubled or trebled,” Dima Hasao district deputy commissioner Dilip Borthakur said.