Rejection of Kokrajhar MP Naba Sarania’s nomination: A case of discretion?

The ongoing Lok Sabha election 2024 is far from being a fair fight as serious violations are going unsanctioned and monitoring agencies are being controlled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In Assam, the redrawing of boundaries and reorganising of population groups through the delimitation exercise had already made the grounds favourable for the BJP and its alliance while keeping any other party or individual opponent at a clear disadvantage. To this list of unfairly acquired advantages was the cancellation of the nomination of a two times independently won Member of Parliament with record margins at Kokrajhar Parliamentary Constituency— reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST). One can only wonder if the sitting MP Naba Sarania’s fate would have been different if only he had joined the BJP!

Political Journey of Sarania and Gana Suraksha Party 

Naba Kumar Sarania, also known as Hira Sarania who had an association with the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) in the past, contested the election for the first time in 2014 and won with a record margin for an independent candidate for MP with 51.82%. He was re-elected in the next election in 2019 with a 32.75% vote share despite tough competition from the two powerful political forces in the Bodoland area namely Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL). BPF’s Promila Rani Brahma got a 30.2% vote share and UG Brahma from UPPL got a 21.12% vote share.