Guwahati: The Election Commission of India has ordered a re-poll at a polling station in Assam’s Sribhumi district following clashes between supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress that disrupted voting on April 9.
The re-poll will be conducted at booth number 239, located at Babyland High English School in the 123-Karimganj North constituency, on Saturday (April 11) from 7 am to 5 pm.
This is the only re-poll ordered among the 63,084 polling stations that went to the polls across Assam, Kerala, and Puducherry, along with four by-election constituencies in Karnataka, Nagaland, and Tripura.
Karimganj North, situated in the Barak Valley, is witnessing a keen three-cornered contest among BJP candidate Subrata Bhattacharjee, Congress nominee Jakaria Ahmed, and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) candidate Choudhury Hibbur Rasul Usama Mabrur. The seat has drawn added attention after sitting MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha joined the BJP in March following a prolonged suspension from the Congress.
According to the 2026 electoral rolls, the constituency has 2,59,644 registered voters, including 1,32,442 men and 1,27,201 women.
Violence on polling day was not confined to Karimganj North. In Rangamati under the Patharkandi constituency, Congress candidate Kartik Sena Sinha allegedly entered a polling station and accused officials of allowing fake voting. After the presiding officer dismissed the allegation, Sinha reportedly damaged an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), sparking clashes between rival party supporters. Around 25 people were injured, two of them seriously. Voting at the booth was suspended for nearly three hours before resuming after the EVM was replaced.
Assam recorded an estimated voter turnout of 85.91 per cent of its total electorate of around 2.50 crore, although final figures are yet to be released. Polling for all 126 Assembly constituencies was held in a single phase on April 9.
The re-poll decision followed a detailed post-poll scrutiny conducted across all 296 constituencies — covering the three state elections and four bye-election seats in the presence of Returning Officers and General Observers. All 1,899 candidates were informed in advance, and the process was fully videographed, with polling documents re-sealed after completion.