In three of eight bypoll seats in Northeast, parties go with wives or son of leaders

Given Choudhary’s unbroken track record in Bongaigaon, the BJP is not contesting from the seat, leaving it for its ally AGP.

The AGP has announced Phani Bhusan Choudhury’s wife Dipti Mayee Choudhury as its candidate from the seat, a choice that has ruffled feathers within the party.

Days before she was announced as the AGP’s candidate, 36 leaders from the party’s district unit including its district president and secretary had resigned over indications that Deepti would be selected as the party’s candidate.

Addressing reporters after the announcement of her candidature, Deepti, who is making her political debut, said that she herself “never had political ambitions” but was pushed to contest because of “popular support”.

“Since I have the public support, I am ready. I personally do not want it at all, I did not seek it. I don’t have political ambitions. But this was such a situation where everyone gave their support, and it is said that if the people want it, you should go with them,” she said.

The dissident AGP members had been pushing for former AGP district secretary Sailendra Sarkar’s candidacy. After Deepti was named by the AGP, Sarkar left the party and filed his nomination as an Independent. The Congress has fielded Brajenjit Sinha here.

Tanzil Hussain

Another seat vacated after the Lok Sabha polls was Samaguri in Central Assam, the only one held by a Congress legislator among the five Assembly seats going for bypolls in the state.

Congress leader Rakibul Hussain had been winning the Samaguri seat for five consecutive terms until he was elected from the Dhubri parliamentary constituency in the recent Lok Sabha polls, where he defeated the incumbent Badruddin Ajmal, the AIUDF chief, by more than 10 lakh votes. This was the highest victory margin across all the seats in the country.

The Congress has now fielded Rakibul’s 26-year-old son and debutant Tanzil Hussain as its candidate for the Samaguri bypoll. Tanzil is the national Secretary and treasurer of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the Congress’s student wing.

The atmosphere in Samaguri is charged ahead of the elections, with multiple instances of clashes between the Congress and the BJP workers during rallies. The BJP has fielded its state party general secretary Diplu Ranjan Sarma as its candidate and is campaigning vigorously in the seat, which has a sizeable minority population. The AAP has fielded Nurul Amin Choudhury from the seat.

Mehtab Chandee Sangma

In Meghalaya, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s wife Mehtab Chandee Sangma is the National People’s Party (NPP)’s candidate from the Gambegre seat in the Garo Hills. The seat became vacant after its Congress MLA Saleng Sangma won the parliamentary polls from Tura by defeating Conrad’s sister Agatha Sharma in the Lok Sabha polls.

Over the last couple of years, the Sangma family has been facing electoral setbacks in the belt and is hoping to reverse the losses.

In the 2023 state Assembly elections, Conrad’s brother and former minister James Sangma lost the Dadenggere seat in the Garo Hills after three consecutive terms in the Assembly.

Earlier this year, in an upset, Agatha lost from Tura — a seat that has been held by the members of the Sangma family since 1977 barring a two-year gap from 1989 to 1991.

Having projected Mehtab Chandee as the NPP’s candidate months in advance and with Conrad himself campaigning vigorously for her, the NPP is pushing to regain lost ground in the Garo Hills. She will be up against Meghalaya BJP vice-president Bernard Marak, Congress’s Jingjang Marak and Trinamool Congress’s Sadhiarani Sangma.