GUWAHATI: The BJP is set to win the by-election to Assam’s Muslim-majority Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency by a substantial margin.
When reports last came in, BJP candidate Devasish Sharma had polled 7,13,622 votes, against 5,71,706 secured by his nearest rival, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, an MLA and chief of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), which draws much of its support from minority communities.
Congress candidate Sibamoni Bora was a distant third, with 1,29,363 votes. The constituency, which has 19.05 lakh voters, recorded a turnout of more than 76 per cent in the by-election held on October 6.
Sharma, a former IAS officer, served as the Deputy Commissioner of Nagaon before taking voluntary retirement on September 3. He joined the BJP on September 8.
The by-election was necessitated by the resignation of Pradyut Bordoloi, a two-time former Congress MP who is now the BJP MLA from Dispur. Before Bordoloi, the BJP’s Rajen Gohain had held the seat for four consecutive terms, from 1999 to 2019.
The Nagaon parliamentary constituency comprises eight Assembly segments — five in Nagaon district and three in neighbouring Morigaon district. Following the 2023 delimitation exercise, the constituency became predominantly Bengali Muslim. Muslims account for 62 per cent of its voters.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the results showed that Muslims had voted for the BJP.
“While we retained or increased our vote share in the four Assembly constituencies held by us, we also registered gains in the remaining four. We secured a chunk of the religious minority votes. This is mainly because of our development politics under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. This victory is a tribute to his leadership and a reflection of growing public support for him,” Sarma said.
The bypoll was a litmus test for the Congress, whose popularity has been declining since the BJP emerged as a political powerhouse in 2014. The results also indicated a partial revival of the AIUDF in Bengali Muslim-majority areas. The party, which once held sway in Muslim-dominated constituencies, performed poorly in this year’s Assembly elections, winning just two of the state’s 126 seats.
The Congress had been wary of a division of Opposition votes following Ajmal’s entry into the contest. However, the combined votes secured by the Congress and AIUDF candidates appeared unlikely to exceed the BJP candidate’s tally.
Assam Congress president and Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi said the results reflected years of alleged political understanding between Sarma and Ajmal. He also alleged that the Election Commission of India had supported this arrangement.
“The secular Congress fell behind as two communal parties united. We want a probe into the role of the Election Commission of India. The drastic fall in the Congress’s vote share, coupled with the stellar performance of the AIUDF, which hardly had any base in the seat, has raised our suspicion,” Gogoi said.
