The Bharatiya Janata Party has won the Nagaon Lok Sabha by-election in Assam, ending a seven-year Congress hold on the seat in a result that marks a major political shift in the region.
BJP candidate Devashish Sharma, a former IAS officer and former Nagaon Deputy Commissioner, defeated All India United Democratic Front chief Badruddin Ajmal by 142,224 votes, according to reports of the result.
A significant win in a minority-majority seat
The win carries particular significance because roughly 62 per cent of voters in the Nagaon constituency are Muslim, a demographic in which the Congress and the AIUDF have traditionally been strong. The by-election followed the resignation of former Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi, who defected to the BJP earlier this year.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma celebrated the victory at a rally in Samaguri, where a local Muslim voter handed him a glass of cow’s milk on stage, which the Chief Minister drank in a gesture of celebration. Sarma had pledged to celebrate in the region if the NDA candidate won the seat.
What the result signals
The result breaks a Congress streak in Nagaon that stretched back seven years and underlines the BJP’s expanding footprint in Assam ahead of the assembly elections. Sarma arrived by helicopter at Fakhli Eidgah in Rupahihat for the victory rally, signalling the importance the party attaches to the win.
The by-election was watched closely as a test of the BJP’s appeal among Muslim voters in Assam and of the Congress’s ability to hold a seat it had controlled for years. The scale of the margin suggests the NDA’s campaign found traction well beyond its traditional base in the constituency.
The UPPL, a key NDA ally in Assam, has announced plans to contest 21 seats in the coming assembly elections, while seat-sharing talks within the NDA have been progressing under Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The Nagaon result now feeds directly into that assembly election arithmetic.
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