Bypoll Results 2021: Counting of votes takes place in Assam amid Covid protocols.
The BJP and its ally UPPL (United People's Party Liberal) are on course to comfortably win all the assembly seats in Assam where by-polls were held on Saturday. Results have already been declared for Mariani – a key Congress bastion. The party is also leading in Bhabanipur and another Congress stronghold -- Thowra. BJP ally UPPL is leading in two seats in the Bodoland Territorial Region.
The BJP's Rupjyoti Kurmi won from the Mariani constituency – a Congress bastion for three decades -- by a margin of more than 40,000 votes. Mr Kurmi – a Congress MLA from Mariani -- had also switched over to the BJP.
In Bhabanipur and Thowra seats, BJP candidates Phanidhar Talukdar and Sushanta Borgohain are leading.
All the leaders on the winning track belonged to opposition parties who were elected to the assembly in the state elections in March-April this year. But they resigned and joined the saffron party since.
Mr Talukdar had won as an AIUDF candidate in the state elections, while Mr Kurmi and Mr Borgohain were Congress lawmakers.
BJP ally UPPL's candidates -- Jiron Basumatary and Jolen Daimary -- are leading in Gossaigaon and Tamulpur seats.
By-polls in these two seats in the Bodoland Territorial Region became necessary after the death of the sitting MLAs.
The results are set to further shrink the space of the Congress in the state and enhance the stature of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP's pointsperson in the northeast who helped the party rule the entire region and was rewarded with the top job after this year's state elections.
