Assam BJP chief claims to win all five seats going to bypolls

Guwahati, Oct 15 (IANS) Assam BJP chief Bhabesh Kalita on Tuesday asserted that the ruling alliance will win the five Assembly seats in the state where bypolls will take place on November 13.

Kalita told reporters: “Four out of five assembly seats where the by-elections will happen have legislators either from the BJP or our alliance partners. People have blessed the BJP with a heavy mandate in this year’s Lok Sabha polls and these four seats got vacant as the MLAs were elected to the lower house of the parliament. This time, we will win all five assembly seats here.”

He claimed that the people of Assam are very much satisfied with the performance of the BJP.

“Voters have complete faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The double-engine government has done unprecedented development in the state for the last 8 years. There is no room for the opposition party and we are sure to clinch a win in five assembly seats,” Kalita said.

However, the BJP leader also mentioned that the party workers will fight polls with utmost sincerity.

“Our party workers have been reaching out to the voters and everybody is instructed not to get overconfident and continue doing the activities related to the polls,” Kalita stated.

The Assembly seats — Dholai, Behali, Samaguri, Bongaigaon and Sidli went vacant after five legislators including a cabinet minister were elected to the parliament in this year’s Lok Sabha polls.

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.

BJP’s former cabinet minister Parimal Suklabaidya successfully contested in the Silchar Lok Sabha seat and his earlier Assembly seat Dholai was vacant. Meanwhile, another senior BJP leader Ranjit Dutta was elected to the lower house of the parliament this time. He was representing the Behali seat in the Assembly.

BJP’s Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) opened its account in the parliament this time after 20 years with its senior leader Phani Bhusan Choudhury being elected from the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat.

Choudhury was a six-time MLA from the Bongaigaon Assembly segment. When AGP fielded him in the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat to fight parliamentary elections, supporters of Choudhury opposed the party’s decision and urged Choudhury to remain the MLA of Bongaigaon.

Another ally of the BJP, United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) leader Joyanta Basumatary, the former MLA from Sidli, also made headlines by securing the Kokrajhar Lok Sabha seat in the parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rakibul Hussain defeated the three-time AIUDF MP and party chief Badruddin Ajmal in the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat with a margin of more than 10 lakh votes reinforcing his status as a five-time legislator from the Samuguri Assembly seat.

According to Kalita, the BJP will field candidates in three seats—Dholai, Behali and Samaguri while AGP and UPPL are set to contest in Bongaigaon and Sidli Assembly seats respectively.