Assam: Bypolls to 5 Assembly constituencies on Nov 13

By-elections to five assembly constituencies in Assam will be held on November 13, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday.

While four of these constituencies were held by the BJP-led NDA, one was held by the Congress. The bypolls were necessitated as these assembly constituencies fell vacant with the election of the incumbent MLAs to the Lok Sabha earlier this year.

Dholai's BJP MLA Parimal Suklabaidya was elected to the Lok Sabha from Silchar. Behali's BJP MLA Ranjit Dutta won the Sonitpur Lok Sabha seat.

BJP ally AGP's Bongaigaon MLA Phanibhushan Choudhury was elected to the Lok Sabha from Barpeta, while UPPL's Sidli MLA Joyanta Basumatary was elected from the Kokrajhar Lok Sabha seat.

Congress MLA from Samaguri, Rakibul Hussain, had won the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat by a record margin of over 10 lakh votes.

The ruling NDA has decided that the BJP will contest Dholai, Behali and Samaguri, while AGP will fight in Bongaigaon and the UPPL in Sidli.

State Congress president Bhupen Borah went to New Delhi to finalise the party's strategy and candidates for the bypolls.

The notification for the bypolls will be issued on October 18, and the last date for filing nominations is October 25. The scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on October 28, and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is October 30.

The votes will be counted on November 23.