The Indian National Congress on Monday, September 14, named former Batadroba MLA Sibamoni Bora as its candidate for the upcoming Nagaon Lok Sabha by-election in Assam.
The announcement was made through a statement issued by Congress general secretary KC Venugopal. The party said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had approved Bora’s candidature for the ensuing by-election to the Nagaon parliamentary constituency.
Bora was elected from the Batadroba Assembly constituency in the 2021 Assam Assembly elections. She secured 84,278 votes, accounting for 60.02 per cent of the total votes polled, and defeated the then-incumbent BJP MLA Angoorlata Deka by a margin of 32,820 votes.
The Congress nomination comes after the ruling BJP named former IAS officer Debasish Sharma as its candidate for the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat. Sharma took voluntary retirement from his position as Nagaon deputy commissioner earlier this month before being announced as the BJP candidate.
The Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency fell vacant in March this year after sitting Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi resigned from the party and joined the BJP. Bordoloi subsequently contested the Dispur Assembly seat on a BJP ticket in the Assam Assembly elections held in April and won the seat.
With both Congress and BJP now having announced their candidates, the Nagaon by-election is set for a direct contest between Sibamoni Bora and Debasish Sharma.
The nomination process for the by-election will begin on September 16. Candidates will have to submit their nominations as part of the process, with scrutiny scheduled for September 17. September 19 will be the last date for withdrawal of candidature.
Polling for the Nagaon Lok Sabha by-election will take place on October 6, while counting of votes has been scheduled for October 9.
The by-election will determine the next representative of the Nagaon parliamentary constituency after the seat was left vacant following Bordoloi’s resignation and subsequent move to the BJP.
