With by-elections for five assembly constituencies in Assam about a month away, the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) nominated Nirmal Kumar Brahma to contest the Sidli seat. Assembly elections are scheduled to take place on November 13 with counting on November 23.
Brahma will be contesting assembly by-polls for the first time. Previously, he served as a Member of the Council of Legislative Assembly (MCLA) for the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) from 2015 to 2020. He was defeated by James Basumatary of the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) in 2020.
He is the president of UPPL’s Chirang district committee. Notably, BJP is contesting three seats while the UPPL and AGP will be contesting one each of the five constituencies where by-elections will be held.
Meanwhile, the BJP has announced the names for the Dholai, Behali and Samaguri seats with Nihar Ranjan Das, Diganta Ghatowar, and Diplu Ranjan Sarma set to contest the by-polls. On the other hand, the Congress named Dhrubajyoti Purakayastha from Dholai, Sanjib Warle from Sidli, Brajenjit Sinha from Bongaigaon, and Tanzil Hussain from Samaguri seat.
Earlier, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) nomited Diptimoyee Choudhury, the wife of eight-time MLA Phanibhushan Choudhury from Bongaigaon after the latter was elected as an MP in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Notably, the Election Commission of India officially announced that by-elections for five Assembly seats in Assam will take place on November 13, with the results expected on November 23. These five Assembly seats became vacant earlier this year after several MLAs transitioned to parliamentary roles following the Lok Sabha elections. This included two MLAs from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including a cabinet minister, along with one each from alliance partners Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL), as well as one from the opposition Congress.
In the recent elections, BJP’s Parimal Suklabaidya, representing the Dholai Assembly segment, and Ranjit Dutta from Behali, successfully contested for the Cachar and Tezpur Lok Sabha seats, respectively. Additionally, veteran AGP leader Phani Bhushan Choudhury, a longstanding figure in the Bongaigaon constituency since 1985, won the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat. Meanwhile, UPPL's Joyanta Basumatary, the former MLA from Sidli, also made headlines by securing the Kokrajhar seat.