BJP announces candidates for Assam Assembly by-polls
Guwahati: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) officially announced its candidates on Saturday for the upcoming Assembly by-polls in Assam.
The party has nominated Dipluranjan Sarma for the Samaguri constituency, Diganta Ghatowar for Bihali, and Nihar Ranjan Das for Dhalai.
The by-polls were necessitated in five constituencies in Assam as the sitting MLAs were elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha elections. These include Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain from Samaguri, BJP MLA Ranjit Dutta from Bihali, BJP MLA Parimal Suklabaidya from Dhalai, AGP MLA from Bongaigaon Phanibhushan Choudhury and UPPL’s Joyanta Basumatary from Sidli (ST).
However, the BJP has not fielded candidates for two constituencies—Bongaigaon and Sidli (ST)—as its allies, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United People's Party Liberal (UPPL), will contest these seats.
BJP MLA and former minister Parimal Suklabaidya was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Silchar (SC) constituency, while his party colleague Ranjit Dutta secured the Sonitpur seat.
AGP's Phanibhushan Choudhury won the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat and Joyanta Basumatary of the UPPL was elected from the Kokrajhar (ST) constituency. Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain won the Dhubri parliamentary seat.
Over 9 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes in the by-polls for the five Assembly constituencies on November 13. Of the 9,10,665 registered voters, 4,55,924 are women and 4,54,722 are men, according to information shared at a press conference by officials in Guwahati.
Voting will take place across 1,078 polling stations, with Sidli (ST) having the highest number of booths at 273, and Bihali having the lowest at 154. The officials also reported that there are 4,389 voters with physical disabilities and 3,788 voters above the age of 85.