guwahati a highoctane electoral campaign for the second phase of assam assembly polls spearheaded by an array of national and state leaders came to an end on tuesday eveningthe second phase of state elections will decide the fate of 345 candidates in 39 seats going to polls on april onethe citizenship amendment act caa issue was at the forefront of the campaign with the bjp which had maintained a studied silence on it in the run up to the first phase of voting raising it in the barak valley this time as a carrot to the predominantly hindu bengali population some of whom have their roots in bangladeshwhile releasing the party manifesto for the assam polls bjp president j p nadda had made a reference to the caa mentioning that it would be implemented in timeunion home minister and bjp leader amit shah in his election rallies at patharkandi and silchar mentioned the controversial legislation for the first time assuring that citizenship rights will be given to refugees while asserting at the same time that the bjp will not allow infiltrators to enter the statethe bjp was particularly strident in its attack on aiudf chief badruddin ajmal accusing him of encouraging illegal infiltration leading to encroachments and land and love jihad which the party has promised to tacklebesides claims of development initatives taken for assam by the bjps doubleengine governments both at the centre and the state the party has also attacked the congress for aligning with the aiudf and allegedly encouraging infiltration for its vested interest of creating a votebankafter the announcement of poll dates in february end prime minister narendra modi began his campaign from karimganj in barak valleythe barak valley has 15 seats in the 126member state assemblymodi also held a rally at sipajhar from where former asam sahitya sabha president paramanda rajbongshi is contesting as the bjp candidatebjp president j p nadda had sounded the partys poll bugle from silchar in barak valley nearly two months before the election commission of india had announced the schedule for the state elections in the northeastern stateboth modi and nadda highlighted that the people of barak valley had sent party candidates to the assembly much before the saffron party made significant inroads in assamall the 39 constituencies spread over 13 districts of the barak valley three hill districts and parts of central and lower assam witnessed last minute canvassing by candidates and their supportersamong the prominent bjp leaders who campaigned for candidates in the second phase are central ministers amit shah nitin gadkari narendra tomar jitendra singh mukhtar abbas naqvi uttar pradesh chief minister yogi adityanath madhya pradesh chief minister shivraj singh chouhan among othersthe bjp asom gana parishad agp and the united peoples party liberal uppl are alliance partnerscongress leader rahul gandhi who was scheduled to address election rallies at haflong and bokajan during the day and interact with women at silchar was unable to reach due to inclement weatherhowever communicating with voters through video message he said