Guwahati: Nirmal Kumar Brahma of the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL), an ally of the ruling BJP in Assam, won the Sidli Assembly seat comfortably, defeating his nearest rival Suddho Kumar Basumatary of the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) by a margin of 37,016 votes.
While Brahma secured 95,243 votes, Basumatary managed to receive only 58,227 votes.
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On the other hand, AGP’s Diptimayee Choudhury won the Bongaigaon seat by a massive margin of 35,164 votes, having polled 74,734 votes. She defeated Congress’s Brajenjit Singha, who secured 39,570 votes.
As the vote-counting process enters its final stage, with NDA allies leading in the remaining two assembly constituencies, it has become almost certain that the BJP-led alliance will sweep the bypolls 5-0.
At 4.40 pm, Samaguri’s BJP candidate Diplu Ranjan Sarmah was leading over Congress’s Tanzil Hussain by a margin of 22,833 votes, with a round remaining, and even a miracle now seems unlikely to help the Congress.
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It will be after more than two decades that the grand old party seems to be losing one of its strongholds, which, until a month ago, was considered its traditional seat.
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Earlier in the day, BJP candidate from Behali Assembly constituency Diganta Ghatowal defeated Congress’s Jayanta Borah by a margin of 9,051 votes.
Ghatowal secured 50,947 votes, while his nearest rival Borah received 41,896 votes.
Meanwhile, in Dholai, BJP’s Nihar Ranjan Das is ahead of Congress’s Dhrubajyoti Purkayastha by a margin of 9,017 votes, with only one round remaining.
Although the by-elections in Assam for five Assembly constituencies were a cakewalk for the BJP-led alliance in the state, the “acid test” is not far off for the saffron camp, with only a year and a half remaining until the state Assembly elections, scheduled for March-April 2026.
Vote counting began at 8 am under tight security for bypolls held on November 13 across five assembly constituencies.
These seats fell vacant earlier this year when their representatives were elected to the Lok Sabha.
The BJP fielded candidates in three constituencies – Behali, Samaguri and Dholai – while its allies, the AGP and UPPL contested Bongaigaon and Sidli, respectively.
The Congress contested all five seats, with a total of 34 candidates vying for victory.