BJP, Congress and their allies get ready for bypoll battle in Assam
Five MLAs, two from the ruling BJP, one each from allies AGP and UPPL and one from opposition Congress won in the Lok Sabha polls
Two months after the Lok Sabha polls, Assam’s political atmosphere continues to bubble with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and their allies and the Congress-led opposition front preparing for a set of bypolls.
Five assembly seats in the northeastern state have fallen vacant following the Lok Sabha polls as two MLAs from the ruling BJP (including a cabinet minister), one each from alliance partners Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL) and one from opposition Congress won in the general elections.
Parties are preparing
The BJP held its state executive meeting in Guwahati on August 4 where discussions took place on the bypolls. At the same time, the Congress-led platform of 18 parties, United Opposition Forum Assam (UOFA) also held a meeting in Guwahati to prepare a formula for the coming elections, the dates of which are yet to be announced.
“We will continue with our alliance model adopted in the 2021 assembly polls. Since AGP and UPPL won Bongaigaon and Sidli respectively three years ago, those seats will be contested by the same parties with the support of BJP, which will put up candidates in the other three seats, Behali, Dhalai and Samaguri,” state BJP president Bhabesh Kalita said.
In the Lok Sabha polls, two MLAs from BJP, Parimal Suklabaidya, a cabinet minister who had represented Dhalai, and Ranjit Dutta from Behali, won from the Cachar and Tezpur seats.
Veteran AGP leader Phani Bhushan Choudhury, who had represented the Bongaigaon assembly seat continuously since 1985 won from the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat and UPPL’s Joyanta Basumatary who was the MLA from Sidli, won from Kokrajhar. The Dhubri Lok Sabha seat was won by a record margin by Congress’s Rakibul Hussain, a five-time legislator from Samaguri.
“We have not decided on the names of the candidates for the bypolls. But the decision on who will get tickets will be based on inputs given by the former MLAs from those seats and they would be entrusted with the task of ensuring wins for BJP and our alliance partners. We are confident of winning all five seats. Samaguri may be a bit difficult due to the demographic profile of voters, but we will do everything needed to register a win there,” Kalita said.
The BJP state chief said Sunday’s executive meeting decided on forming a four-member committee headed by finance minister Ajanta Neog to look at the status of implementation of all promises made by the party ahead of the 2021 polls and to take measures to ensure that all are fulfilled by December 2025 ahead of next year’s assembly polls.
“The BJP and their allies may make tall claims of winning all the five seats, but they know they are on weak ground. Opposition parties agreed on Sunday to contest the coming bye-polls together to defeat the ruling parties in all seats,” said Congress state president Bhupen Kumar Borah.
Borah said a decision is yet to be taken on parties, candidates and seats but Raijor Dal and CPI (M) — both parties with one seat each in the state assembly — have sought to put up their candidates in the Bongaigaon and Behali seats.
“We will adopt a policy of give and take in seat distribution and candidate selection. Decisions will be taken on who is the most suitable candidate and has the best chance of winning from a particular seat,” said Borah.
The political affairs committee of the Congress party will meet on August 11 to further fine-tune their strategy for the bypolls followed by another round of meetings of the presidents of all 18 UOFA parties on August 15 to discuss candidates.
Assam is expecting some political changes ahead of the bypolls. There are speculations that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has not expanded his cabinet since assuming office in May 2021, will reshuffle ministries by removing some ministers and including fresh faces in August.
A BJP leader, who asked not to be named, said party chief Kalita could get inducted into the cabinet and a new face will be chosen to head the party before the bypolls.
Besides the five assembly seats, Assam will elect two Rajya Sabha members in the coming months as two sitting BJP MPs from the upper house, Sarbananda Sonowal and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, won from Dibrugarh and Kaziranga seats in the Lok Sabha polls
Union minister and former chief minister Sonowal was elected to the Rajya Sabha in September 2021. In this Lok Sabha election, he contested from Dibrugarh and defeated Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) president Lurinjyoti Gogoi, who was the consensus candidate from the INDIA bloc.
Tasa was elected to the Rajya Sabha in June 2019. In this election, he contested the Kaziranga (earlier known as Kaliabar) seat and defeated his nearest rival Roselina Tirkey of Congress.
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