Assam Assembly polls: BJP releases list of candidates, allies get 37 seats

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam, led by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, has released its first list of 88 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections. The state will go to the polls on April 9 in a single phase; counting will take place on May 4.

 

Congress leader Pradyut Bordoloi, who recently quit as a Lok Sabha MP and joined the BJP, will contest from Dispur. Bordoloi left the party citing humiliation and lack of respect.

 

Rupam Goswami, spokesperson for the Assam BJP, said the party has decided to allot 26 seats to its ally, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), and 11 seats to the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF). The BJP has released a list naming 88 candidates.

 

 

“Only one change might take place in the list — we (BJP) may contest the Dalgaon constituency, while the AGP may take the Samaria seat,” he said while speaking to Business Standard. As of now, Jyostna Kalita, a new face, has been nominated from the Dalgaon seat. In the 2021 Assembly polls, the BJP contested 93 seats, winning 60, while the AGP contested 29, including three where it had a friendly fight with the BJP, and won nine, and the BPF won four of the 12 it contested.

 

Bhupen Kumar Borah, a former Congress leader who served as president of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee until 2025 before resigning and switching parties in February 2026, has been nominated from the Bihpuria constituency.

 

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will contest from Jalukbari constituency, a seat he has represented for five consecutive terms since 2001.

 

Sitting BJP MLA from the Jorhat seat, Hitendra Nath Goswami, has been renominated from the seat, where he will face president of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee Gaurav Gogoi. Goswami represented the seat as an AGP legislator in 1991, 1996 and 2001, and as a BJP MLA in 2016 and 2021.

 

Among the prominent names dropped are Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Atul Bora, sports minister Nandita Garlosa and Deputy Speaker Numal Momin. New faces on the list include Vijay Kumar Gupta from Guwahati Central and Himanshu Shekhar Baishya from Palasbari.

 

In a twist, after Pradyut Bordoloi quit the Congress to join the BJP, his son Prateek has decided not to contest as a Congress nominee from the Margherita Assembly constituency in the upcoming polls. The party has changed the constituencies of Speaker Biswajit Daimary from Panery to Tamulpur (ST), ministers Chandramohan Patowary from Dharmapur to Tihu and Ranjeet Kumar Dass from Pathacharkuchi to Bhowanipur-Sorbhog.

 

BJP’s second list for Kerala

 

The BJP on Thursday released its second list of 39 candidates for the Kerala Assembly polls, fielding former state president and former Mizoram governor Kummanam Rajasekharan from the Aranmula constituency. He will take on Health Minister Veena George. The party has fielded K Ranjith from Dharmadom, where Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is contesting. The BJP had earlier announced 47 candidates in its first list, taking the total number of candidates declared so far to 86 out of 140 seats.