Assam Assembly election 2021, Behali profile: BJP's Ranjit Dutta won seat in previous election

The Behali Assembly constituency in Assam is currently held by BJP MLA Ranjit Dutta. The constituency falls under the Tezpur Lok Sabha segment and is part of the Biswanath district.

This seat has been held by the Congress for five terms since the first election in 1978. Incidentally, Dutta is the only BJP candidate who has won this seat, and has held the seat for three terms (2001, 2006, 2016).

Voter turnout in the previous elections

The Behali constituency has a total number of 1,07,746 registered voters. Of these, 56,315 are men and 51,431 are women. There are no registered voters from the transgender community, according to the official website.

In the 2016 election, the polling percentage was  86.25 percent. This was an increase of just six percent in comparison to the 2011 polls, when the voter turnout was 80.88 percent.

Past election results and winners

The BJP MLA Ranjit Dutta had won the 2016 election with almost 60 percent of the votes. He garnered 52,152 votes of 56.20 percent of the vote share.

The runner-up was Congress MLA Rupak Sarma, who won 28,551 votes or 30.77 percent of the vote share.

The Congress had won the seat in the 2011 election, with its candidate Pallab Lochan Das garnering 40,798 votes.

The sitting MLA, Dutta, was the runner-up in the 2011 polls. He got 22,662 votes and the margin of his loss was 18,136 votes.

Elections in Assam are being held in three phases between 27 March and 6 April.

The first phase of the Assembly election will take place on 27 March in 47 constituencies, whereas polling in the second phase will see 39 constituencies going to vote on 1 April.

The third and final phase will take place on 6 April with 40 constituencies going to polls.

The date of making nominations for the first, second and third phase are 9 March, 12 March and 19 March, respectively, while scrutiny of nominations will take place on 10 March, 16 March and 20 March, respectively. The last date for withdrawal of candidatures are: 12 March, 17 March and 22 March, respectively.