Nagaon bypoll: Assam Congress says BJP unsure of Muslim vote, cites demographic challenge

Assam Leader of Opposition Wazed Ali Choudhury on September 9 said Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s remarks on the Nagaon Lok Sabha by-election reflected the BJP’s uncertainty over winning the seat.

Reacting to the chief minister’s recent statement that Nagaon is not a traditional BJP stronghold, Choudhury said the Congress had won the constituency in two consecutive Lok Sabha elections and that its demographic composition posed a challenge for the ruling party.

“The CM spoke about this. He had previously stated that winning the Nagaon constituency would not be easy for the BJP. This is because the Congress had won there in two consecutive elections, and also the demographic composition of the population does not favour the BJP,” Choudhury said.

He alleged that the BJP was now making efforts to attract Muslim voters despite traditionally relying on a Hindu vote base.

“The BJP is a communal party. It focuses solely on its own vote bank, believing that its support base consists only of Hindus. They are trying hard to secure Muslim votes this time. Yet, there is uncertainty about whether Muslims will actually vote for them,” he said.

Choudhury added that this uncertainty was the reason, in his assessment, that Sarma himself had spoken about the difficulty of winning Nagaon.

Sarma had on September 7 said Nagaon was not traditionally a BJP stronghold and that the party would focus on improving its performance across the constituency's seven Assembly segments rather than predicting victory. He noted that the BJP had lost the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Nagaon by around 2.5 lakh votes.

The Nagaon seat fell vacant after former Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi joined the BJP and subsequently won the Dispur Assembly seat. The by-election is scheduled for October 6.