GUWAHATI: Naba Kumar Saraniya (alias Hira Saraniya) is an Indian politician who is currently the incumbent Member of Parliament representing the Kokrajhar constituency in Assam. He won as an Independent candidate in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 with the highest margin ever recorded in polls in Assam and as an independent candidate in the history of Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier, Saraniya was the commander of the 709 battalion of ULFA and was touted as one of the most dreaded militants in Assam. Hailing from Dighalipaar village under Tamulpur police station in Baksa district of Assam, Sarania joined the outfit in 1990.
The sitting MP is the first non-Bodo to be elected from Kokrajhar and that too by a margin of over 3.55 lakh votes. He received massive support from the 70 per cent non-Bodo voters of the constituency.
Sarania is expected to face a tough fight in the third and last phase of the Lok Sabha election to be held in Assam on 23rd April, courtesy his below par performance in his tenure in the Parliament.
The data, which was published by PRS Legislative Research, also revealed that Das took part in 22 debates while serving as a Lok Sabha MP.
Among the issues raised by Sarania in Lok Sabha were regarding Need to ensure peace in BTC areas in Assam, the Issue of preparation of NRC in Assam, Flood situation in Assam, regarding The terrorist attack in Kokrajhar, and regarding Issues related to abduction and killing of people by armed militants in Assam.
Additionally, Sarania raised a total of only 78 questions as an MP. The national average of number of questions raised by an MP is 293, while the state average is 164. Among the state MPs, Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal has asked the highest number of questions (404), followed by Silchar MP Sushmita Dev (318).
Sarania failed to raise a single Private Member’s Bill in his five year tenure as a Parliamentarian while his fellow MP Gourav Gogoi raised as many as 6 such bills in the Parliament.
Kokrajhar LS constituency to witness a three-cornered fight
For the Lok Sabha elections 2019, the fight for the Kokrajhar Lok Sabha seat is triangular. The fight in the constituency is among the BJP-AGP-backed BPF candidate Pramila Rani Brahma, the ABSU-NDFB (P)-backed UPPL candidate Urkhao Gwra Brahma and the independent candidate Naba Sarania. Altogether nine candidates are in the fray for Kokrajhar ST HPC including Biraj Deka of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Sabda Ram Rabha of Indian National Congress.
What is glaringly visible in the constituency is the split of Bodo votes between Pramila Rani Brahma and her rival UPPL candidate UG Brahma. With AIUDF president Badruddin Ajmal lending his support to UPPL candidate UG Brahma in the constituency, there is every possibility of a large chunk of Muslim votes going to UG Brahma. If that really happens, it can be a real threat to the ruling alliance candidate, Pramila Rani Brahma. Both the candidates are up for a fight with the incumbent MP Naba Kumar Sarania.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election here, Independent candidate Naba Kumar Sarania defeated another Independent candidate UG Brahma by a massive margin of 3,55,779 votes. This was the highest margin of win in terms of votes ever in elections in the state of Assam.
Notably, Kokrajhar Lok Sabha constituency in Assam has elected the most number of the independent MPs in the Parliament - eight times since 1971 with breaks in 1980, 1989 and 2009.
The constituency, reserved for Scheduled Tribes candidates, covers 10 assembly segments viz Gossaigaon, Kokrajhar East (ST), Kokrajhar West (ST), Sidli (ST), Bijni, Sorbhog, Bhabanipur, Tamulpur, Barama (ST) and Chapaguri (ST).
The Kokrajhar parliamentary constituency (constituency number 5) in the state of Assam is reserved for candidates belonging to the scheduled tribes. Located in the Kokrajhar District in the west of Assam, this parliamentary constituency is one of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the northeastern state of Assam.
Situated on the banks of the Gourang River that houses Kokrajhar, it is one of the most essential urban centres in the state as it is part of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and the parties are trying their best to woo the Bodo voters who play a decisive role in the constituency.
The constituency consists of 17,65,423 number of electorates in total, of which 9,00,318 are males, 8,65,066 are females and 39 belong to the third gender.
Kokrajhar by the numbers:
Date of Polling: 23rd April 2019
Number of polling stations: 2,347
No of voters: 17,65,423
No of female voters: 8,65,066
No of male voters: 9,00,318
No of third gender voters: 39