The Election Commission of India on Tuesday officially announced that by-elections for five Assembly seats in Assam will take place on November 13, with the results expected on November 23. The constituencies involved are Dholai, Sidli, Bongaigaon, Behali, and Samaguri.
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.
The Congress party, led by Rakibul Hussain, clinched the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat, marking a notable achievement with a considerable margin and reinforcing his status as a five-time legislator from Samaguri.
Notably, the BJP plans to contest the Behali, Samaguri, and Dholai seats, while AGP and UPPL will contest Bongaigaon and Sidli, respectively. In preparation for the upcoming by-polls, the BJP held a closed-door meeting on Sunday night to strategize and finalize the candidate list.
