By-election on 5 seats in Assam, more than 9 lakh voters are eligible to vote

Voting will be held on November 13 for 5 assembly seats in Assam. More than 9 lakh voters are eligible to vote in the by-elections on these seats. Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Goyal gave this information on Friday. By-elections are being held on Dholai (reserved), Samaguri, Behali, Bongaigaon, and Sidli (reserved) assembly seats. The MLAs of these seats were elected MPs in the Lok Sabha elections held a few months ago. Anurag Goyal said that out of the total 910,665 voters in these five assembly constituencies, 455,924 are men and 454,722 are women. 

Behali has the lowest number of polling stations at 154

In this by-election, voting will be done at 1078 polling stations in five assembly constituencies. Sidli has the highest number of polling stations at 273, while Behali has the lowest number of polling stations at 154. Goyal says that 4389 voters are Divyang, while 3788 voters are above 85 years of age. He said, “The model code of conduct has already come into effect and it will be applicable in the entire district where the assembly constituencies are.” He said that voting will start at 7:00 am and will continue till 5:00 pm and those who reach the polling stations till the end of voting will be allowed to vote.

The chief electoral officer said the counting of votes will take place on November 23. The ruling alliance has decided that the BJP will contest from three seats — Dholai (SC), Behali, and Samaguri, while its allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) will contest from Bongaigaon and the UPPL from Sidli (SC). The Dholai (SC) seat fell vacant after BJP MLA and former Cabinet minister Parimal Suklabaidya was elected to the Lok Sabha from Silchar (SC) parliamentary constituency.

Why election on Bongaigaon seat?

Similarly, Behali BJP MLA Ranjit Dutta won the Sonitpur Lok Sabha seat. National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally AGP’s Bongaigaon seat MLA Phanibhushan Choudhary was elected MP from Barpeta Lok Sabha seat. Apart from this, Joyanta Basumatari from the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) was elected from the Kokrajhar (reserved) parliamentary constituency. He was the MLA of Sidli. Congress MLA from Samaguri Rakibul Hussain won the Dhubri parliamentary seat by a record margin of more than 10 lakh votes.