GUWAHATI, Sep 19: The NDA partners in Assam are gearing up for the upcoming bye-elections with chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announcing that the ruling BJP are contesting three seats – Behali, Dholai and Samaguri – while allies, United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) are in the race for the other two seats – Sidli and Bongaigaon – respectively.
Sarma, along with Cabinet ministers Urkhao Gwra Brahma and Ashok Singhal, and chief executive member of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) Pramod Boro in the presence of senior leaders from the NDA had addressed party workers at a meeting at Dhaligaon in Chirang district on Wednesday.
After threadbare discussions on the upcoming bye-election for Sidli LAC, chief minister Sarma exuded confidence that the NDA-backed candidate of UPPL would win the seat which had fallen vacant after UPPL’s Jayanta Basumatary was elected to the Lok Sabha earlier this year.
“As it is, Sidli has been a stronghold for the BJP-UPPL alliance with the victory of the UPPL candidate in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections in Kokrajhar bearing testimony,” the chief minister said.
He however acknowledged that the Sidli bypoll would see a triangular contest between the UPPL, Congress and the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF).
The by-polls to the five seats are likely to be held in October-November even as the Election Commission of India is yet to announce the dates.
Altogether 9,08857 general electors will be eligible to vote across 1078 polling stations in the by-polls.
The chief minister further clarified that there were no differences in the agendas of BJP and UPPL and that both partners were working for the welfare and development of the indigenous people of the state.
Notably, the alliance partners had recently formed a joint coordination committee to oversee the execution of their strategy for the Sidli Assembly constituency by-election.