As five Assam MLAs become MPs, parties to prepare for bypolls

GUWAHATI — With five MLAs, including a state minister, getting elected to Parliament, elections will have to be held on the vacant Assembly seats in Assam within the next six months.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has declared that the Panchayat polls will be held in the state in November. It is anticipated that byelections in the five Assembly constituencies may also happen at the same time.

Two BJP legislators, including a state minister, were in the fray in the Lok Sabha polls.

Assam Transport Minister Parimal Suklabaidya fought polls from the Silchar Lok Sabha seat following the reservation of this constituency for the Scheduled Caste community in last year’s delimitation exercise. BJP’s incumbent MP Rajdeep Roy could not contest due to this and Suklabaidya was pitted against Congress candidate in Silchar.

Following a comfortable win, Suklabaidya has tendered his resignation from the council of ministers in Assam and is heading to start a new innings in Parliament. He was representing the Dholai seat in the Assembly and the senior BJP leader first won this constituency in 1991.

Ranjit Dutta, an old guard of BJP in Assam was given a ticket to fight polls from the Sonitpur Lok Sabha seat. He is an MLA from the Bihali Assembly segment and byelections will be held here also as Dutta won the general elections in Sonitpur.

BJP’s two allies in the state — Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) — also fielded its two MLAs in the Lok Sabha polls.

In Barpeta, Phani Bhusan Choudhury contested on AGP’s ticket. He is an eight-time MLA from the Bongaigaon Assembly segment. UPPL gave a ticket to Jayanta Basumatary who is a legislator in the Sidli Assembly constituency.

Both Choudhury and Basumatary won the general elections and byelections will happen in their Assembly seats as well.

On the other hand, Congress MLA from Samaguri and former state minister Rakibul Hussain defeated Badruddin Ajmal in Dhubri with a whopping margin of more than 10 lakh votes. He has announced of leaving the MLA seat of Samaguri.

CM Sarma has already said that by maintaining the alliance formula, the BJP will leave Bongaigaon and Sidli Assembly seats to its partners — AGP and UPPL respectively. The ruling party will field candidates in Bihali and Dholai.

On the other hand, Samaguri is a Muslim-dominated seat and BJP may find it hard to snatch this seat from the Congress in the bypolls.

The delimitation exercise in Assam has changed the boundaries of Assembly segments in the state. However, according to CM Sarma, the bypolls will happen with old Assembly boundaries and the delimitation will come into force only before the 2026 Assembly election in the state.

With the five seats falling vacant, the political parties in the state will now start preparations for the bypolls whenever they are held.