Assam: BJP eyes win in Congress bastion Samaguri

Guwahati, Oct 16 (IANS) Five Assembly constituencies in Assam will go for bypolls in November after getting vacant following the election of five MLAs to the lower house of the parliament in this year’s Lok Sabha polls. 

Out of these five assembly seats, four were earlier held by the BJP and its allies. Congress has only one seat - Samaguri which is a bastion of former Assam minister Rakibul Hussain.

Hussain has been representing the Samaguri in the Assembly since 2001. He has not lost a single election in the last 23 years.  

The senior Congress leader challenged AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal in the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat in the parliamentary elections which was held by Ajmal since 2009.

Hussain pulled a spectacular win in Dhubri by a margin of more than 10 lakh votes putting a stop to Ajmal’s hold in that seat.

As the Samaguri Assembly seat is vacant and Hussain’s son Tanjil Hussain is set to contest from this constituency in the upcoming bypolls on a Congress ticket.

BJP has been eyeing to oust Congress from Samaguri for long. The ruling party has thrown its top leaders into the campaign for the by-elections.

Minister Jayanta Mallabaruah who has been stationed in Samaguri told reporters, “This time, the people of Samaguri Assembly constituency are ready to vote for the BJP. They have seen the misrule of the Congress party for many years and Rakibul Hussain will be ousted from this seat in the upcoming elections.”

Recently, there was a scuffle between supporters of the BJP and Congress in Samaguri; however, Mallabruah claimed that two groups of Congress party clashed with each other.

“It was Congress party’s internal conflict. We have no role in it,” he said.

Earlier, state BJP chief Bhabesh Kalita 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: “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 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.