The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded a man accused of cattle smuggling as a candidate for the three-tier rural polls in Assam.

The BJP nominated Sahidul Zaman for the post of Dholchhera village council president’s post a couple of days after the Asom Gana Parishad, the BJP’s ruling ally in Assam, fielded a man facing rhino poaching charges.

The Congress too had fielded a man facing trial for killing rhinos in Kaziranga National Park but withdrew his candidature in less than 24 hours.

The police in southern Assam’s Karimganj district had arrested Zaman, claiming to be a member of BJP’s minority cell, in a cattle smuggling case on May 30. Officials of Patharkandi police station said he was in prison for less than a month.

“We are not aware of any cases against him,” senior BJP leader and former MLA Mission Ranjan Das said.

Zaman is one of 55 Muslim candidates the BJP has fielded in various posts for the panchayat elections scheduled in two phases – on December 5 and 9.

Monday was the last day of filing nominations in three districts of southern Assam, including Karimganj.

Elected unopposed

The BJP has gone into the first phase of the rural polls with 140 of its candidates for various posts being elected unopposed. The last day for submitting papers for the first phase of polling across 20 districts was November 15.

“The people-oriented programmes of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre and the Sarbananda Sonowal government in the State will help our party win most of the other seats,” Assam BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass said, congratulating those who won unopposed.

The panchayat election results would be declared on January 11 next year.