Guwahati: Sonitpur, formerly known as Tezpur, holds significant importance as one of the key Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam, established in 1952.
Kamakhya Prasad Tripathy of the Congress party became the inaugural Member of Parliament representing this constituency.
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According to the data from the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Sonitpur Lok Sabha Constituency comprises a total of 1,638,992 eligible voters, among which 817,734 are male, 827,163 are female, and 35 identify as the third gender.
The Tezpur seat encompasses nine Assembly segments, including Dhekiajuli, Barchalla, Tezpur (AGP), Rangapara, Sootea, Biswanath, Behali, Gohpur, and Bihpuria.
This year, a total of eight candidates have filed their nominations to contest for the Sonitpur Lok Sabha constituency, with the election scheduled for April 19, 2024.
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The candidates vying for the seat are Alam Ali Bahujan (Maha Party), Kameswar Swargiary (Voters Party International), Premlal Ganju (Congress), Raju Deuri (Bodoland Peoples Front), Ranjit Dutta (BJP), Rinku Roy (Gana Suraksha Party), and Rishiraj Kaundinya (AAP).
However, the BJP and the Congress remain the primary contenders in the constituency.
Historically, until 2004, the constituency had been a stronghold of the Congress party, which secured victory 11 times. However, the BJP has emerged victorious twice, in 2014 and 2019.
Winners of Sonitpur (Tezpur) Lok Sabha Constituency in 2019
In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Pallab Lochan Das from the BJP secured the seat with a significant margin of 242,841 votes. He garnered 684,166 votes, accounting for a vote share of 57.00%, defeating M.G.V.K. Bhanu from the Congress, who received 441,325 votes (37.03%).
Winners of Sonitpur (Tezpur) Lok Sabha Constituency in 2014
Similarly, in the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, Ram Prasad Sarmah from the BJP emerged victorious, securing 446,511 votes with a vote share of 45.52%. The Congress candidate, Bhupen Kumar Borah, was the runner-up with 360,491 votes (36.75%), trailing by a margin of 86,020 votes.
As per the results of the 2021 Assembly Election, the AGP holds one MLA seat, while the BJP holds the remaining eight MLAs, representing the Sonitpur Lok Sabha Constituency.
Past Winners of Sonitpur (Tezpur) Lok Sabha Constituency:
Kamakhya Prasad Tripathy (Congress) 1952
Bijoy Chandra Bhagavati (Congress) 1957, 1962, 196
Kamala Prasad Agarwal (Congress) 1971
Purna Narayan Sinha (Janata Party) 1977
Bipinpal Das (Congress) 1984
Swarup Upadhyay (Congress) 1991
Iswar Prasanna Hazarika (Congress) 1996
Moni Kumar Subba (Congress) 1998, 1999, 2004
Joseph Toppo (AGP) 2009
Ram Prasad Sarmah (BJP) 2014
Pallab Lochan Das (BJP) 2019