HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Oct 15: Assam’s five assembly constituencies will go to bypolls on November 13 and counting of votes will take place on November 23, Election Commission of India announced on Tuesday.
The five seats went vacant after five MLAs including a cabinet minister were elected in the Parliament in this year’s Lok Sabha polls.
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Two MLAs from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including a cabinet minister, along with one each from alliance partners Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL), as well as one from the opposition Congress won the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, paving way for the bye-elections in their seats.
The former cabinet minister Parimal Suklabaidya successfully contested in the Silchar Lok Sabha seat as his earlier assembly seat in Dholai went vacant. Meanwhile, another senior BJP leader Ranjit Dutta was elected to the lower house of the parliament this time. He was representing the Behali seat in the assembly.
With the election of its senior leader Phani Bhusan Choudhury to the Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency, the AGP has made its parliamentary debut. The party ran in two of the state’s parliamentary seats, but Congress candidate Rakibul Hussain defeated it in the Dhubri polls.
Choudhury was a six-time MLA from the Bongaigaon assembly segment. When AGP fielded him in the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat to fight parliamentary elections, supporters of Choudhury opposed the party’s decision and urged Choudhury to remain the MLA of Bongaigaon.
Congress leader Rakibul Hussain defeated the three-time AIUDF MP and party chief Badruddin Ajmal in the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat with a margin of more than 10 lakh votes reinforcing his status as a five-time legislator from the Samuguri assembly seat.
Meanwhile, UPPL’s Joyanta Basumatary, the former MLA from Sidli, also made headlines by securing the Kokrajhar seat.
“Our party will contest in three of the five assembly constituencies, while the AGP and another ally, the UPPL, will each contest for one seat,” stated state BJP president Bhabhesh Kalita.
He declared that the BJP would put forth candidates for the assembly seats of Samaguri, Dholai, and Bihali.
The UPPL will contest in the Sidli assembly constituency, while the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is set to field candidates in the Bongaigaon assembly seat.
On the other hand, the Congress party is likely to contest in all five assembly seats despite pressure from its allies to leave one or two seats for them.
Notably, the bye-election to 48 assembly constituencies and two parliamentary constituencies will be held in November along with polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.
The bypolls for the 47 assembly constituencies and Wayanad parliamentary seat in Kerala will be on November 13, while the voting will be held in one assembly constituency in Uttarakhand and the Nanded parliamentary seat in Maharashtra on November 20.
