Guwahati, Nov 22 (IANS): The counting of votes will be held on Saturday for five Assembly seats in Assam that went to by-elections on November 13.
Four seats are held by BJP and its allies while Congress has a legislator in one of these five assembly constituencies.
The five seats went vacant after five legislators including a cabinet minister were elected in the Parliament in this year’s Lok Sabha polls.
This included 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.
BJP’s former cabinet minister Parimal Suklabaidya successfully contested in the Silchar Lok Sabha seat and his earlier assembly seat Dholai was 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.
The AGP opened its account in the parliament this time with its senior leader Phani Bhusan Choudhury being elected from Barpeta Lok Sabha seat. The party contested in two parliamentary constituencies in the state, however, it lost polls in Dhubri to Congress candidate Rakibul Hussain.
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.
The BJP contested by-elections in three Assembly seats—Dholai, Samaguri and Behali.
Diplu Ranjan Sarma was given a ticket in Samaguri while Diganta Ghatowar and Nihar Ranjan Das are fighting for the BJP in Behali and Dholai Assembly segments respectively.
The two allies of the ruling party—Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) contested bypolls in the Bongaigaon assembly constituency while the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) fielded its candidate in the Sidli seat.
On the other hand, the Congress party fought by-elections in all five Assembly seats.