Assam by-polls: 38 candidates in fray as nomination process concludes

A total of 38 candidates are in the fray so far for five assembly seats in Assam where by-elections will be held on November 13 as the nomination process concluded on Friday, with 24 nominees submitting their documents on the last day, an official release said.

On Friday, three candidates filed their nomination papers for Dholai, one for Sidli, five for Bongaigaon, 12 for Samaguri and three for Behali.

Prominent candidates in the fray so far are BJP’s Diplu Ranjan Sarma in Samaguri, AGP’s Diptimoy Choudhury, wife of eight-time party MLA Phanibhushan Choudhury, in Bongaigaon, Congress’s Jayata Bora in Behali and Bodo People’s Front’s Suddho Kumar Basumatary in Sidli.

The nomination papers will be scrutinised on October 28 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination is on October 30.

The BJP is contesting three of the five constituencies — Behali, Samaguri and Dholai — leaving Bongaigaon and Sidli for its alliance partners AGP and UPPL respectively.

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The Congress is contesting all the five constituencies.

The by-elections were necessitated following the election of the sitting MLAs to the Lok Sabha earlier this year.

Congress’s Samaguri candidate Tanzil Hussain is the son of sitting MLA Rakibul Hussain who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Dhubri parliamentary constituency by a record margin of over 10 lakh votes.

Dholai’s BJP MLA and former cabinet minister Parimal Suklabaidya was elected to Lok Sabha from Silchar parliamentary constituency while his party colleague Ranjit Dutta from Behali won the Sonitpur Lok Sabha seat.

NDA’s alliance partner AGP’s sitting MLA from Bongaigaon Phanibhushan Choudhury was elected from the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat while the UPPL MLA from Sidli, Joyanta Basumatary, was elected from Kokrajhar parliamentary constituency.

Polling will be held in the five seats on November 13 and votes will be counted on November 23.