The Indian National Congress (INC) party announced four candidates for the next month’s assembly bypolls in five constituencies in Assam, including Tanzil, son of Lok Sabha MP Rakibul Hussain. In the recent Lok Sabha elections, Rakibul Hussain won by a huge margin of 10,12,476 votes. The assembly polling is scheduled for November 13, with the counting of results on November 23.
The party also announced the names of two seats in Madhya Pradesh, with Mukesh Malhotra contesting from Vijaypur and Rajkumar Patel from Budhni—the former stronghold of Union Minister for Agriculture and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Vijaypur was last held by the state minister for Forest and Environment, Ramniwas Rawat, who quit Congress and joined the BJP.
In Assam, the bypolls would be held in Dholai (SC), Sidli (ST), Bongaigaon, Behali, and Samaguri. These constituent seats became vacant post the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Hussain will contest from Samaguri, the one seat previously held by Congress, that too by his father. Dhrubajyoti Purakayastha will stand in Dholai, Sanjib Warle in Sidli, and Brajenjit Sinha will eye the Bongaigaon seat. The united opposition alliance will field Bibek Das of CPI(ML) in Behali despite opposition from local Congress leaders.
On Saturday, BJP released the names of three candidates for the Assam bypolls. Nihar Ranjan Das will contest in Dhola, Diganta Ghatowar in Behali, and Diplu Ranjan Sarma will go against Hussain in Samaguri.
Earlier on Sunday, BJP released its first list of 99 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls. Prominent names included Sreejaya Chavan, daughter of Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Chavan, along with Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and BJP Maharashtra chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule.