NDA wins Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim by-polls

Nava Thakuria

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has established a one-sided victory in eight State legislative assembly seats belonging to northeast India, where by-polls were conducted in  Assam and Meghalaya recently along with many other States. Sikkim avoided the by-polls as both the seats were declared unopposed by the Election Commission of India. The saffron party won three seats in Assam along with its allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United Peoples’ Party Liberal (UPPL) emerged victorious in one seat each. Meghalaya’s lone seat under by-polls was won by a National People’s Party (NPP) nominee and Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) candidates were declared winners from two seats in the tiny Himalayan State.

The voting in all seats took place on 13 November to fill up the vacant space as the respective legislators participated in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls and won the electoral battles. The counting of votes was done on 23 November where the final results were declared by the evening hours. Samaguri assembly seat of Assam witnessed  a series of violent incidents where both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress flexed muscles since the early days of electioneering. Frequent tussles between the supporters of different political parties were reported regularly. Political violence even claimed the life of a BJP supporter and many others sustained injuries. Allegations and counter-allegations were raised by various party leaders.

Diplu Ranjan Sarmah, the young BJP nominee, established an impressive victory against the Congress candidate   Tanzil Hussain with a margin of over 24,000 votes. Initially Tanzil, who is the son of five-time legislator  Rakibul Hussain and later elected as a Parliamentarian, was assumed to win the electoral battles as it’s a Muslim majority constituency. Amazingly, Diplu Ranjan was the only non-Muslim candidate out of  11 in the fray. Another BJP nominee Diganta Ghatowal won from Behali seat defeating his nearest candidate (Congress’s Jayanta Bora) with a difference of over 9000 votes. The seat was vacated by BJP legislator  Ranjit Dutta after winning the last general elections. Both the candidates from CPI-ML (Lakhikanta Kurmi) and Aam Aadmi Party (Ananta Gogoi) lost their deposits.

Dholai (Schedule Caste) seat, which became vacant after BJP legislator Parimal Suklabaidya was elected to the lower house of Parliament, is retained by saffron candidate  Nihar Ranjan Das defeating nearest rival Congress nominee Dhrubajyoti Purkayastha by a margin of over 9,000 votes. Similarly, AGP nominee Diptimayee Choudhury won from Bongaigaon constituency defeating Congress candidate  Brajenjit Singha with a difference of over  35,000  votes. The seat was represented by veteran AGP leader Phanibhushan Choudhury (Diptimayee’s husband) for many decades and he vacated it after winning the recent LS elections. The highest margin of winning votes (over 37,000) was observed in Sidli (Schedule Tribe) constituency, where UPPL nominee  Nirmal Kr Brahma defeated Shuddho Kr Basumatary of Bodoland People’s Front. As UPPL legislator Jayanta Basumatary participated in the LS polls successfully the by-election was necessitated.

Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma fielded his wife (Dr Mehtab Chandee Agitok Sangma) as an NPP candidate for by-polls in Gambegre seat of  Garo hills locality, where she defeated nearest electoral rival Sadhiarani Sangma  of Trinamool Congress with a margin of over 4,000 votes. The election became necessary as its legislator Saleng A Sangma (Congress) vacated the seat after winning the  2024 LS polls (where he defeated CM Sangma’s sister Agatha Sangma. The saffron party also unsuccessfully put its candidate (Bernard Marak), where the Congress nominee  Jingjang M Marak got the third position. The Congress leaders in Assam including Parliamentarian Gaurav Gogoi faced criticism from various regional political parties as they decided to contest all the five seats without leaving any space for a proposed opposition alliance Asom Sanmilita Morcha.

Similarly Sikkim chief minister Prem Singh Tamang projected his son (Aditya Tamang Golay) as an SKM nominee from the Soreng-Chakung assembly seat, where his lone opponent Prem Bahadur Bhandari of Sikkim Democratic Front left the electoral battle. Another seat (Namchi-Singhithang) was abandoned by former CM Pawan Kumar Chamling’s SDF candidate Danial Rai and thus the ruling SKM nominee Satish Chandra Rai emerged winner. During the last assembly elections, conducted simultaneously with LS polls, CM Tamang  won from two seats and he vacated the Soreng-Chakung seat that necessitated  the by-polls. CM’s wife Krishna Kumari Rai  won from Namchi-Singhithang seat, but she resigned. Currently, the 32-member Sikkim legislative assembly is fully dominated by the SKM.