Nagaon Bypoll: BJP candidate Debashish Sharma casts vote, appeals voters to exercise franchise

BJP candidate Debashish Sharma cast his vote at the Mayong Higher Secondary School polling station on Tuesday, October 6 as voting began for the Nagaon Lok Sabha by-election in Assam. Sharma became emotional after casting his ballot and appealed to voters to exercise their franchise in the interest of strengthening democracy.

Sharma also extended his best wishes to the candidates contesting against him in the by-election.

Polling for the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency began at 7 am and will continue until 5 pm across 2,112 polling stations, including five auxiliary booths, five model polling stations and 335 women-managed booths.

A total of 19,02,009 voters are eligible to cast their ballots in the by-election. The electorate comprises 9,58,595 men, 9,43,364 women and 50 third-gender voters. Fifteen candidates are in the fray.

The Nagaon bypoll has brought the BJP and Congress into a direct electoral contest, with the BJP seeking to win the seat previously represented by Congress leader Pradyut Bordoloi. Bordoloi has since aligned with the BJP, leading to the vacancy and the subsequent by-election.

The BJP has fielded Sharma, a former Nagaon district commissioner who took voluntary retirement from government service before entering electoral politics. He is contesting against Congress candidate Sibamoni Bora, a former legislator from the now-redrawn Batadroba constituency.

AIUDF chief and sitting Binnakandi MLA Badruddin Ajmal is also contesting the by-election, seeking a return to the Lok Sabha.

The Nagaon and Morigaon district administrations have made arrangements for the polling process, with around 9,664 polling personnel deployed across the constituency. A total of 86 micro-observers have also been deployed, along with 69 flying squad teams and 69 static surveillance teams.

Webcasting has been arranged at all polling stations as part of the election monitoring and security measures.