Politics
Assam Bypoll Results: NDA’s Wins In All Five Seats A Ringing Endorsement Of Himanta Biswa Sarma
Jaideep Mazumdar
Nov 02, 2021, 08:11 PM | Updated 08:11 PM IST
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The BJP and its ally--the United People's Party-Liberal (UPPL)--have won all the five Assembly seats to which bypolls were held in Assam. The victories--three of the BJP and two of the UPPL--by decisive margins amount to a ringing endorsement of chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma within a span of six months.
The BJP’s victory in the Bhabanipur, Mariani and Thowra Assembly seats is all the more significant and sweet because all the three winning candidates had won the elections held in March-April this year from their respective seats but as opposition candidates.
Phanidhar Talukdar was fielded from Bhabanipur by the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in the general Assembly polls held in March-April this year.
He won the seat by defeating the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) candidate by 3,227 votes. AGP is an ally of the BJP-led ruling alliance in Assam. Talukdar later joined the BJP and resigned as an MLA. The bypoll was necessitated by his resignation.
Talukdar was nominated from Bhabanipur by the BJP in the bypolls and he retained this seat, but increased his victory margin to a very impressive 25,641 votes.
Rupjyoti Kurmi won the Mariani Assembly seat earlier this year on a Congress ticket. He had defeated his BJP rival by 2,446 votes. After the elections, Kurmi resigned from the Congress, gave up his membership of the Assembly and joined the BJP.
Kurmi contested from Mariani in the bypolls held on October 30 on a BJP ticket and trounced his Congress opponent by 40,104 votes.
Similar is the case with Sushanta Borgohain who won the Thowra Assembly seat on a Congress ticket earlier this year. He had defeated his BJP rival by 2,006 votes. Borgohain also left the Congress and joined the BJP after the elections. He re-contested from Thowra on a BJP ticket and trounced his nearest rival by 30,561 votes!
The success of all these three entrants to the BJP in not only retaining their seats after resigning from their respective parties, but also increasing their victory margins by impressive multiples, is a testimony to the continuing popularity of the BJP, claim senior BJP leaders.
The reason these three victories are also construed as a ringing endorsement of BJP strongman Himanta Biswa Sarma is because he had personally invested a lot of energy and resources in the poll campaign in these three constituencies.
The Congress and the AIUDF launched a vicious campaign against the BJP, especially Sarma, accusing him of engineering the defections and thus forcing the bypolls in the three seats. The two parties had accused Sarma of being “unethical” and using money power.
Sarma campaigned enthusiastically for his party’s three candidates. “The people of these three Assembly seats have, by giving the three candidates much bigger and powerful mandates than what they got as AIUDF and Congress nominees a few months ago, have displayed their love for the BJP,” Sarma told Swarajya from Guwahati.
“Our victory in the three seats, as well as our ally UPPL’s win from two seats, shows that the people of Assam are firmly with Himanta Biswa Sarma. The wins, in fact, show that support for Sarma and the BJP has only grown since the general Assembly polls a few months ago. We are headed in the right direction and people are happy with the development ushered in by our chief minister,” said information & public relations minister Pijush Hazarika.
The UPPL’s victories from Gossaigaon and Tamulpur are also cause for cheer in the NDA camp.
The Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) candidate Majendra Narzary won the Gossaigaon seat a few months ago. He defeated UPPL’s Somnath Narzary by 10,343 votes. Narzary succumbed to post-Covid complications in late May this year, thus necessitating the bypoll.
The UPPL’s Jiron Basumatary defeated his nearest Congress rival by 28,252 votes, and the BPF candidate came third with a vote share of 13.78 percent, down from the 45.19 percent that BPF’s Majendra Narzary got a few months ago.
The UPPL’s Leho Ram Boro had won the Tamulpur Assembly seat in the Assembly polls held in March-April this year. He had defeated his nearest BPF rival by 32,183 votes. But Boro passed away in late May due to post-Covid complications.
In the bypolls held on October 30, UPPL’s Jolen Daimary not only retained Tamulpur for his party, but also increased his party’s earlier victory margin substantially to over 50,000 votes.
“This is a great victory for our party. We not only retained Tamulpur, but also wrested Gossaigaon from the BPF. This shows our support among the people of Bodoland is increasing. Our twin victory is also a great win for chief minister Sarma; more and more people are supporting his policies and programmes,” UPPL leader Dwijen Basumatary told Swarajya.
With these wins, the strength of the Congress in the 126-member Assembly has gone down to 26 while the BJP’s numbers have increased to 64. The NDA’s total strength in the Assembly has increased to 81 while the Congress-led Mahajot’s numbers have dwindled to 45 from the 50 MLAs it had in its ranks a few months earlier.
The crucial takeaway from the results of the bypolls in Assam is that popular support from chief minister Sarma’s decisive leadership has increased.
This is evident from the fact that the three legislators who quit the AIUDF and Congress to join the BJP after the elections not only retained their seats, but also won on BJP tickets by much larger margins.
Sarma had also campaigned extensively for the two UPPL candidates in Gossaigaon and Tamulpur. He repeatedly appealed to the electorate to vote for his ally (UPPL) in order to strengthen his hands so that he can boldly implement his development agenda to transform Assam.
The UPPL’s victories are being construed as wholehearted support by the people of Bodoland for the NDA.
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Jaideep Mazumdar is an associate editor at Swarajya.
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