Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dominates Barak Valley with 9 seats; Congress secures 4

A CORRESPONDENT 

SILCHAR: BJP registered decisive victories in 9 out of 13 Assembly seats in the Barak Valley, while the remaining four constituencies were won by the Congress. Reflecting the demographic pattern as set by the delimitation, the BJP won all the 9 Hindu-majority seats and Congress the Muslim-dominated constituencies. In 2021, the BJP won four out of seven seats in Cachar, while two went to Congress and the rest to the AIUDF. Monday’s mandate saw a major success for the ruling party as the BJP won six out of the seven seats in Cachar, while the only Muslim-majority seat, Sonai, was won by Aminul Haque Laskar of Congress. AIUDF, once a strong contender in the valley, was reduced to a non-entity this time. 

In Sribhumi, BJP retained the two Hindu-majority seats, Patharkandi and Ramakrishna Nagar, by huge margins, while in North Karimganj and South Karimganj with Muslim majorities, Congress won decisively.

In Hailakandi district, where one constituency was chopped off by the delimitation, Congress and BJP shared one seat each.

In the prestigious Silchar seat, former MP Dr Rajdeep Roy registered a huge victory over his rival Abhijit Paul of Congress. In Lakhipur, Minister Kaushik Rai won against Dr M Shanti Kumar Singh with a huge margin. In Udharbond, Rajdeep Goala beat former Minister Ajit Singh of Congress. In Borkhola, former MLA Kishor Nath made a surprise comeback, beating the high-profile Congress candidate Dr Amit Kalowar. In Katigorah, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, a three-time Congress MLA from North Karimganj, continued his victory lap, now in the saffron jersey. Purkayastha defeated Amar Chand Jain of Congress, who represented Katigorah in the Assembly in 2016 as a BJP MLA. 

In Dholai, Amiyo Kanti Das of the BJP outshone Dhrubajyoti Purkayastha of Congress by a huge margin. In Sonai, Aminul Haque Laskar of Congress defeated AGP rival Karim Uddin Barbhuiya. 

In North Karimganj, Zakaria Ahmed of Congress beat Subrata Bhattacharjee of BJP by almost 20 thousand votes. In South Karimganj, Aminur Rashid Chowdhury registered a comfortable victory in a triangular fight. Ikbal Hussain of the AGP finished a poor third while the TMC candidate, Aziz Khan, snatched a major share of the NDA vote bank. In Patharkandi, Minister Krishnendu Paul defeated Kartik Sena Sinha by a comfortable margin. Bijay Malakar retained his Ramakrishna Nagar seat, previously known as Ratabari, beating Suruchi Roy of Congress by a huge margin. In Hailakandi, former MLA Rahul Roy was defeated by Dr Milon Das, the young candidate of BJP. In the Algapur-Katlicherra seat, state Youth Congress President Zubair Anam Mazumder defeated three outgoing MLAs, all from the AIUDF, with a decisive margin.

Also Read: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clean sweeps in Biswanath for 3rd consecutive term