Nine LS seats of Assam register increased winning margin

Guwahati, Jun 5 (PTI) The winning margins in Assam's nine Lok Sabha constituencies, of which six were won by the NDA and three by Congress, increased significantly compared to those in the 2019 elections.

In the other five seats, retained by the BJP, however, the margin declined.

The NDA constituents swept the just concluded polls winning 11 of the 14 seats in the state.

BJP won nine seats, the same as in the 2019 polls, while its partners - the AGP and the UPPL - secured one each. The Congress, on the other hand, bagged three constituencies.

For the Congress, the biggest triumph was the demolition of the All India United Democratic Front citadel Dhubri. AIUDF supremo and three-time MP Badruddin Ajmal was defeated there by a record margin of 10,12,476 votes by Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain. In 2019, the AIUDF chief had won from Dhurbri by 2,26,256 votes.

Lok Sabha’s deputy leader of the Congress Gaurav Gogoi defeated sitting BJP MP Topon Gogoi by 1,44,393 votes in Jorhat. The BJP leader had won from there by a margin of 83,653 votes in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

Gaurav, who had won the 2019 polls from Kaliabor, was shifted to Jorhat after his erstwhile constituency was realigned and renamed Kaziranga during the delimitation exercise last year.

Congress leader and sitting MP of Nagaon, Pradyut Bordoloi, retained the central Assam seat by 2,12,231 votes, a significant increase from his previous winning margin of 16,752 votes which was the lowest in the 2019 polls.

The BJP, notwithstanding its success in nine seats, registered a decline in the winning margins in five seats, including in Dibrugarh where Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal tasted victory.

Sonowal defeated united opposition candidate Lurinjyoti Gogoi, the Assam Jatiya Parishad leader, by 2,79,321 votes, which is lower than the 2019 tally of 3,64,556.

Sitting BJP MP Pradan Baruah's winning margin in Lakhimpur also declined to 2,10,257 as that in the previous edition was 3,50,551 while the party's another sitting MP Kripanath Malla of Karimganj, managed to win by 18,360 votes, the lowest in this poll as against 38,309 in 2019.

In the Guwahati parliamentary constituency, BJP candidate Bijuli Kalita Medhi also registered a lower winning margin of 2,51,090 votes as against the sitting party MP Queen Ojah who had secured 3,45,606 votes in the previous Lok Sabha polls.

BJP's Amarsing Tisso, who replaced sitting party MP Horen Singh Bey in Diphu, won by a margin of 1,47,603 votes, lower than the 2,39,626 which was registered by his predecessor.

The BJP, however, increased its winning margin considerably in Silchar(SC), Tezpur, Kaziranga and Darrang-Udalguri.

In Silchar (SC), Assam Minister of Excise, Transport and Fisheries Parimal Suklabaidya, who replaced sitting BJP MP Rajdeep Roy, increased the winning margin by 2,64,311 as against 81,596 in 2019.

In Kaziranga, which was renamed during the delimitation exercise from the previous Koliabor, Rajya Sabha MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa wrested it from the Congress, by 2,48,947 votes as against Gaurav Gogoi's winning margin of 2,09,994 in the last elections.

In Sonitpur, renamed from the earlier Tezpur, BJP MLA Ranjit Dutta replaced sitting party MP Pallab Lochan Das and secured the highest winning margin of 3,61,408 votes for the party. Das had won by 2,42,841 votes.

Dilip Saikia, the sitting MP of Darrang-Udalguri, renamed from the earlier Mangaldoi, improved his winning margin to 3,29,012 from 1,38,543 registered in the last polls.

AGP MLA Phanibhushan Choudhury wrested the Barpeta seat by 2,22,351 votes from the Congress which denied ticket to its sitting MP Abdul Khaleque as the demography of the once minority-dominated constituency was changed during the delimitation exercise last year. Congress candidate Abdul Khaleque had won the seat by a margin of 1,40,307 votes.

UPPL made its debut in the Parliament with its candidate Joyanta Basumatary winning the Kokrajhar (ST) seat by 51,583, higher than the last winning margin of 37,786 of independent MP Naba Sarania. PTI DG NN