GUWAHATI, Nov 23: The BJP and its allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the United Peoples’ Party Liberal (UPPL) swept the by-elections in Assam, winning all five assembly constituencies, retaining four and wresting one from the Congress.
The BJP wrested the high-profile Samaguri assembly seat, which witnessed widespread violence during campaigning, from the Congress which had held sway over the constituency for the last five terms.
BJP’s Diplu Ranjan Sarmah defeated his opponent Tanzil Hussain of the Congress, son of former minister and the constituency’s five-time MLA Rakibul Hussain, by 24,501 votes.
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Sarmah polled 81,321 votes while Hussain secured 56,820 votes, among 11 candidates in the fray.
The seat had fallen vacant after the election of the senior Hussain to the Lok Sabha from Dhubri by a record margin of over 10 lakh votes.
BJP’s Nihar Ranjan Das won from Dholai (SC) constituency by a margin of 9,098 votes over his nearest rival Dhrubajyoti Purkayastha of the Congress.
Das polled 69,945 votes, while the Congress candidate secured the second place with 60,847 votes, among eight candidates in the fray.
Bypoll to the constituency was necessitated following the election of former minister Parimal Suklabaidya to the Lok Sabha from the Silchar (SC) constituency.
AGP retained Bongaigaon as its candidate Diptimayee Choudhury defeated her nearest rival Brajenjit Singha of the Congress by a margin of 35,164 votes. The wife of eight-time MLA Phanibhushan Choudhury polled 74,784 votes while Singha secured 39,570 votes, among eight contesting candidates.
UPPL’s Nirmal Kumar Brahma won the Sidli (ST) constituency by a margin of 37,016 against his nearest rival Shuddho Kumar Basumatary of BPF. The Sidli (ST) constituency was earlier held by UPPL’s Jayanta Basumatary, who was elected to the Lok Sabha earlier this year. Brahma polled 95,243 votes while Basumatary secured 58,227 votes and Congress’s Sanjib Warie bagged 7,634 votes.
BJP retained Behali with its candidate Diganta Ghatowal polling 50,947 votes, while Jayanta Bora of the Congress secured 41,896 votes. There were four candidates in the fray in the constituency, including Lakhikanta Kurmi of the CPI(ML) Liberation and Ananta Gogoi of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), with both losing their deposits. The seat was earlier held by Ranjit Dutta, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tezpur parliamentary seat.
The counting of votes for five assembly constituencies, where the bypolls were held on November 13, began at 8 am on Saturday amid tight security to decide the fate of 34 candidates.
Bypolls were held in the five assembly constituencies in Assam as these seats fell vacant following the election of the elected representatives to the Lok Sabha earlier this year.
The BJP contested three of the five constituencies — Behali, Samaguri and Dholai (SC) — while its alliance partner AGP and UPPL had put up candidates in Bongaigaon and Sidli (ST) seats, respectively.
The Congress had contested all the five constituencies. (PTI)
