Political parties intensify poll campaign in Biswanath district

A CORRESPONDENT

BISWANATH CHARIALI: Three constituencies, namely 76-Biswanath, 77-Behali and 77-Gohpur Legislative Assembly Constituencies, fall under Biswanath district and 288 polling stations in Gohpur.

Biswanath constituency has 82,149 male voters and 80,912 female voters against a total of 1,63,062 voters. There are 1,167 voters over the age of 80, 1,315 differently-abled voters and one transgender voter. Behali has a total of 1,23,279 voters with 62,796 male voters and 60,483 female voters. Around 2,10,000 voters with almost equal number of male and female voters will exercise their franchise in the poll in Gohpur LAC. With the elections round the corner, all the political parties have intensified poll campaign in Biswanath district, including Gohpur subdivision, with the opening of temporary campaigning offices.

A keen contest is likely between Congress candidate Anjan Borah and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Pramod Borthakur in 76 Biswanath LAC. Both the candidates have intensified their campaign to woo the voters with promises and assurances. A good number of star campaigners, including Rajnath Singh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma visited the constituency and addressed public meetings.

Congress candidate Anjan Borah is relatively new to legislative politics while BJP's Pramod Borthakur, who is the sitting MLA, is trying hard to regain the seat. Pramod Borthakur defeated Congress candidate and former minister Nurjamal Sarkar in the last assembly election.

People will witness neck-to-neck contest between BJP candidate Ranjit Dutta, CPI (ML)'s Bibek Das and independent candidate Jayanta Borah at 77 Behali LAC. BJP candidate Ranjit Dutta has represented the constituency three times and is a cabinet minister in the Sonowal ministry. He defeated Congress's Rupak Sharma in the last election.

The 'battle of the ballot' is likely to be limited between BJP's sitting MLA Utpal Borah and Congress' Ripun Borah in 78 Gohpur LAC. Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Borah is the president of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee. He represented Gohpur LAC two times earlier and held the posts of Education and Panchayat and Rural Development Minister in the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government.

Tea garden voters can play a decisive role in electing a candidate since there are around 1,50,000 voters in 31 small and big tea gardens in all the three LACs. Minority and Nepali voters also play a big role in the election. There are a good number of minority voters in the southern part of Biswanath LAC. The candidates and their representatives have been campaigning from house-to-house, from village to village and from ward to ward in the municipality areas to woo the voters.

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