As Assam prepares to vote on April 9 for elections to the 126-member Legislative Assembly, political parties have scrambled to woo the voters and gather support for them. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), under Chief Minister Himanta Sarma Biswa, is looking to retain power for a third straight term, while the Congress is seeking to regain power in a state where it was once the dominant force.
The state has 126 assembly constituency, including the Tamulpur seat. Established in 1978, the Tamulpur assembly constituency comes under the Darrang–Udalguri Lok Sabha seat and is a part of the Tamulpur district. This seat is reserved for scheduled tribe (ST) candidates since 2023. Over the years, this constituency has seen different political battles. It is worth mentioning that the ruling BJP has never won this seat.
A triangular contest
This year, the Tamulpur assembly constituency will witness a triangular contest between BJP's Biswajit Daimary, United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) president Pramod Baro and Congress candidate Rafel Daimary. The UPPL has decided not to field sitting MLA Jolen Daimary, who was elected from this seat following a byelection in 2021.
Baro, who was recently elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha as a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate, has also filed his nominations for the Assam elections.
The 2021 Assam elections and the subsequent by-polls
In the previous assembly elections in Assam in 2021, UPPL's Leho Ram Boro won the Tamulpur seat, defeating Bodoland People's Front (BPF) candidate Ranga Khungur Basumatary by a margin of more than 32,000 votes. However, byelections were held in Tamulpur in 2021 after Boro lost his life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the byelections, the UPPL fielded Jolen Daimary, who received 86,678 or 59.62 per cent votes to win this constituency. Independent candidate Ganesh Kochari was a distant second, with 29,619 or 20.67 per cent votes. Gana Suraksha Party (GSP) candidate Brajendra Nath Deka was at the third place, receiving 13,573 or 9.34 per cent votes.
The polling in Assam will be held in a single phase on April 9. The Election Commission of India (ECI) will declare the results, along with those in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the union territory (UT) of Puducherry, on May 4.
