Assam Assembly election 2021, Biswanath profile: Allies BJP, AGP seek to retain stronghold

The Biswanath Assembly constituency, currently held by the BJP, falls under the Tezpur Lok Sabha segment in Assam. The sitting MLA is Promod Borthakur, who won the 2016 election with 64,225 votes.

However, reports said that in the seat-sharing talks between the BJP and its ally, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the latter has demanded to be allowed to fight for the seat this time round.

The constituency is part of the Biswanath district.

Voter turnout in the previous election

The Biswanath constituency has a total number of 1,41,223 registered voters, of which 68,343 are women and 72,880 are men. There are no voters from the transgender community in the constituency.

The voter turnout in 2016 election was 86.73 percent, while the polling percentage in the 2011 election was 80.68 percent.

Past election results and winners

BJP MLA Borthakur won the seat in the last election with 52.33 percent of the vote share, while Congress candidate Nurjamal Sarkar was the runner-up with 54,105 votes or 44.09 percent of the vote share.

In 2011, the constituency was won by the Asom Gana Parishad's Prabin Hazarika. Hazarika had won 48,104 votes over Sarkar, who was the runner-up in the 2011 polls too. Sarkar had won 46,605 votes.

He had lost the seat to Hazarika by a margin of just 1,499 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.