Assam bypolls: NDA retains Sidli, Behali assembly seats, ahead in 3 others

Guwahati: The BJP and its allies retained two assembly seats and were leading in the three other constituencies in Assam where bypolls were held on November 13.

The saffron camp and its ally United Peoples' Party Liberal (UPPL) on Saturday won the Sidli and the Behali assembly seats.

The NDA allies were also leading in all the remaining three constituencies with BJP's Nihar Ranjan Das in Dholai (SC), Diplu Ranjan Sarmah in Samaguri and AGP nominee Diptimayee Choudhury in Bongaigaon comfortably ahead of their Congress rivals.

UPPL candidate Nirmal Kumar Brahma defeated his nearest rival Shuddho Kumar Basumatary of the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) in the Sidli (ST) constituency by a margin of 37,016 votes.

Brahma polled 95,243 votes while Basumatary secured 58,227 votes and the third candidate in the fray Sanjib Warie of the Congress secured only 7,634 votes.

The seat was earlier held by UPPL's Jayanta Basumatary who was elected to the Lok Sabha earlier this year.

In Behali, the BJP retained the seat with Diganta Ghatowal polling 50,947 votes while Jayanta Borah secured 41,896 votes.

Four candidates were in the fray in the constituency, including Lakhikanta Kurmi of the CPI(ML) Liberation and Ananta Gogoi of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with both losing their deposits.

The seat was earlier held by Ranjit Dutta who was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Tezpur parliamentary seat.

Bypolls were held in the five assembly constituencies as these fell vacant following the election of the previous representatives to the Lok Sabha earlier this year.

The BJP contested in three of the five constituencies - Behali, Samaguri and Dholai (SC) - while its alliance partner AGP and UPPL had put up candidates for Bongaigaon and Sidli (ST) seats.

The Congress contested in all the five constituencies.