The 2021 Assam Legislative Assembly election was the 15th quinquennial
legislative assembly election held in the
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n state of
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
from March 27 to April 6 in three phases, to elect 126
MLAs to the 15th
Assam Legislative Assembly. The votes were counted and the result declared on Sunday, 2 May. The term of the previous Fourteenth Legislative Assembly of Assam ended on 31 May 2021.
The election saw the incumbent
BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...
-led
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) retaining power with 75 seats, which marks the first time a non-
INC alliance winning consecutive terms in the state. The ''Mahajot'' led by INC won 50 seats, increasing its tally from 26 in 2016. Jailed activist and
Raijor Dal founder and President
Akhil Gogoi
Akhil Gogoi is an Indian peasant leader, RTI activist and MLA from Sibsagar, Assam. Over the years he has been leading many anti-graft movements in the state. Gogoi came to national attention after he was awarded the Shanmugam Manjunath Integr ...
contested the election as an independent candidate and won the Sibsagar seat by a margin of 11,875 votes.
Background
The election in 2016 brought a change of power as the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...
(INC), which had formed the government under
Tarun Gogoi since 2001, lost its majority to the
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...
led by
Sarbananda Sonowal.
Demographics
According to the
2011 census, 61.5% were Hindus, 34.22% were Muslims.
Christian minorities (3.7%) are mostly among some of the
Scheduled Castes and Tribes
The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...
(SC/ST) population.
The six communities in Assam – Maran, Matak, Tai Ahom, Chutia, Koch Rajbongshi and the tea tribes have been demanding grant of ST status since a long time. These six communities are numerous and would play a major role in the elections. The Scheduled Tribe population (both ST(Plains) and ST(Hills) combined in Assam is around 13% of which the
Bodo people
Boro (बर'/बड़ो ), also called Bodo, is the largest ethnolinguistic group in the Assam state of India. They are a part of the greater Bodo-Kachari family of ethnolinguistic groups and are spread across northeastern India. They are ...
(an indigenous Assamese community) account for 40% and the Scheduled Caste population is about 7.4% of which the
Kaibarta and Jal Keot (both indigenous Assamese & migrant Bengali communities) combined account for about 36%.
Out of 32 districts of Assam, 11 are Muslim majority according to the
2011 census. These districts are
Dhubri
Dhubri (Pron: ˈdhubri) is an old town and headquarter of Dhubri district in Indian state of Assam. It is an old town on the bank of the Brahmaputra river, with historical significance. In 1883, the town was first constituted as a Municipal Bo ...
,
Goalpara
Goalpara, Pron: ) is the district headquarters of Goalpara district, Assam, India. It is situated to the west of Guwahati.
Etymology
The name Goalpara is said to have originated from the word "Gwaltippika" meaning Guwali village, or The villa ...
,
Barpeta,
Morigaon
Morigaon (pron: mʌrɪˈgãʊ) is a town of town area committee and the district headquarters of Morigaon district in the Indian state of Assam and including the headquarters of the Tiwa Autonomous Council (TAC), Tiwashong, Assam which was c ...
,
Nagaon,
Hojai
Hojai is a town and a municipal board in Hojai district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Assam. It is located on the banks of the two tributaries of Brahmaputra namely Kapili and Jamuna
Etymology
The term Hojai means Prie ...
,
Karimganj
Karimganj is a city in the Karimganj District of the Indian state of Assam. It is the administrative headquarters of the district.
Karimganj city is located at . The area of Karimganj city is 16.09 km2. It has an average elevation of 13 ...
,
South Salmara–Mankachar,
Hailakandi,
Darrang
Darrang () is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India. The district headquarters are located at Mangaldoi. The district occupies an area of 1585 km2.
History
No definitive records about Darrang are available for the pre ...
and
Bongaigaon
Bongaigaon () is a major city in the Indian state of Assam. Its urban area spans across Bongaigaon and Chirang district. The city also serves as the gateway of the North-East Frontier Railway Zone with its New Bongaigaon Junction railway st ...
. Bodos have a population share of 12% and the Kaibarta and Jal Keot have a total share of about 10% (all of which are a part of the indigenous Assamese community). The share of the indigenous Assamese communities in Assam was about 47% in the 2001 census which has reduced to about 40-45% in 2016 as predicted by the experts. Indigenous Assamese Muslims, also known as Khilonjia Muslims, include ethnic groups such as Goria and Moria, and are estimated to be around 40 lakhs in population out of a total 1 crore (4 million out of 10 million) muslims in Assam.
Voter statistics
According to the CEO office, 23,374,087 General electors were eligible to vote in the Assam Assembly election. Of these, 132,081 voters had disabilities, 289,474 voters were above the age of 80, 1,281,918 were newly enrolled voters, and 505,874 voters were in the age group of 18–19 years. Apart from these, there were also 63,074 service voters. More than 1.08 lakh
D-voters were barred from casting their votes in this election.
Schedule
Parties and alliances
Candidates
Source:
Surveys and polls
Voting
Turnout
Events
The Election commission suspended four polling officials after a polled
Electronic Voting Machine
An electronic voting machine is a voting machine based on electronics.
Two main technologies exist: '' optical scanning'' and '' direct recording'' (DRE).
Optical scanning
In an optical scan voting system, or marksense, each voter's choices ...
(EVM) in
Ratabari constituency in
Karimganj district
Karimganj district is one of the 34 districts of the Indian state of Assam. Karimganj town is both the administrative headquarters district and the biggest town of this district. It is located in southern Assam and borders Tripura and the Sylhe ...
was transported to the strong room through a car belonging to relative of
Krishnendu Paul, BJP candidate from neighbouring
Patharkandi
Patharkandi is a township located in Karimganj district in the Indian state of Assam. It is 350 kilometres south of the state capital Guwahati and 32 kilometres south of the district headquarters Karimganj.
Politics
Patharkandi is part of the Pa ...
, after polling party's own car broke down during heavy rain on 9:00pm April 1, 2021. The commission also ordered for a repoll at the polling place where the EVM was taken from, despite all machines were packed and untouched. The vehicle was stopped after a mob was informed and they spotted the EVMs in another vehicle reaching strong room. The video of the incident went viral.
Repoll
On 10 April 2021, the Election Commission of India (ECI) declared the polling held on 1 April 2021 at four polling stations across three Assembly constituencies as 'void' under Section 58(1)(b) of the
Representation of the People Act, 1951. The Commission also ordered a repoll in these booths to be held on 20 April 2021.
Results
Results by party/alliance
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" , Alliance
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" , Party
! colspan="3" , Popular vote
! colspan="3" , Seats
, -
!Vote
!%
!±
pp
!Contested
! Won
! +/-
, -
, rowspan=4 bgcolor=,
!rowspan=4 align=left,
National
Democratic
Alliance
, bgcolor=,
,
BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...
, 6,384,538
, 33.21
, 3.70
, 93
, 60
,
, -
, bgcolor=,
,
AGP
, 1,519,777
, 7.91
, 0.23
, 29
, 9
, 5
, -
, bgcolor=#F3ED13,
,
UPPL
, 651,744
, 3.39
, 3.39
, 11
, 6
, 6
, -
, bgcolor=,
, style="background:#FAD6A5;", Total
, style="background:#FAD6A5;", 8,556,059
, style="background:#FAD6A5;", 44.51
, style="background:#FAD6A5;", 2.61
, style="background:#FAD6A5;", 126
, style="background:#FAD6A5;", 75
, style="background:#FAD6A5;", 11
, -
, rowspan=9 bgcolor=,
!rowspan=9 align=left, Mahajot
, bgcolor=,
,
INC
, 5,703,341
, 29.67
, 1.29
, 95
, 29
, 3
, -
, bgcolor=,
,
AIUDF
, 1,786,551
, 9.29
, 3.76
, 20
, 16
, 3
, -
, bgcolor=,
,
BPF
, 651,073
, 3.39
, 0.55
, 12
, 4
, 8
, -
, bgcolor=,
,
CPI(M)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxist–Leninist communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in terms of membership and electoral seats and one of the na ...
, 160,758
, 0.84
, 0.29
, 2
, 1
, 1
, -
, bgcolor=#CDCDCD,
,
IND
, 27,749
, 0.14
, —
, 1
, 0
, —
, -
, bgcolor=,
,
CPI
, 27,290
, 0.14
, 0.08
, 1
, 0
,
, -
, bgcolor=,
,
CPI(ML)L
, 26,403
, 0.14
, 0.05
, 1
, 0
,
, -
, bgcolor=,
,
RJD
, 13,321
, 0.07
, 0.07
, 1
, 0
,
, -
, bgcolor=,
, style="background:#ADD8E6", Total
, style="background:#ADD8E6", 8,396,486
, style="background:#ADD8E6", 43.68
, style="background:#ADD8E6", 12.72
, style="background:#ADD8E6;", 126
, style="background:#ADD8E6", 50
, style="background:#ADD8E6", 24
, -
!colspan = "2" rowspan=3 align=left, None
, bgcolor="" ,
, 32 other
parties
, 911,054
, 4.74
, colspan="2", N/A
, 0
,
, -
, bgcolor="",
,
IND
, 1,139,423
, 5.93
, 5.11
, ''N/A''
, 1
,
, -
, bgcolor="" ,
,
NOTA
Nota Sports and Racing Cars is an automobile manufacturer in Australia. The company was founded by Guy Buckingham in 1952. He was an aircraft engineer and used his expertise to build triangulated spaceframed sportscars. Possibly Australia's ...
, 219,578
, 1.14
, 0.02
, colspan="3" , N/A
, - class="unsortable" style="background-color:#E9E9E9"
! colspan = 4, Total
!19,222,600
!100
! colspan="2" , N/A
!126
!
, -
! colspan="10" ,
, -
, colspan="4" , Valid Votes
, 19,222,600
, 99.52
, colspan="4" rowspan="3" style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , N/A
, -
, colspan="4" , Invalid votes
, 93,246
, 0.48
, -
, colspan="4" , Turnout
, 19,315,846
, 82.42
, -
, colspan="4" , Registered voters
, 23,436,864
, colspan="5" style="background-color:#E9E9E9",
, -
Results By district/division
Results by constituency
Source:
Aftermath
Soon after the election results were declared and the BJP led NDA emerged victorious, it faced the dilemma of who they should make the Chief Minister. While most of the top leaders in the BJP state unit favored incumbent Chief Minister
Sarbananda Sonowal, speculations suggested that
Himanta Biswa Sarma had more number of elected MLAs of the BJP on his side. Due to prolonged discontent between the two leaders, a BJP legislature party meeting could not be called.
Due to the post poll violence in West Bengal, the BJP top brass delayed decision regarding the chief ministership issue it faced in Assam. After six days of declaration of the results, the BJP central leadership on 8 May called both the leaders to
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...
to sort out the differences and prevent a factionalism within the party. It held a meeting at BJP national president
JP Nadda's house where Home Minister
Amit Shah was also present. They met with Sonowal and Himanta separately first and then held another meeting where both of them were present. The meetings lasted for over four hours. At the end, they left the place and told reporters that the a BJP legislature party meeting will be held the day after, where the name of the next Chief Minister will be announced.
The next day Sarbananda Sonowal tendered his resignation letter to Governor
Jagdish Mukhi at his residence. In the Library
Planetarium in Guwahati, the BJP legislative party meeting was constituted where
Sarbananda Sonowal himself proposed the name of Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma for Chief Minister and he was unanimously elected as the head of the BJP legislative party. Then in the evening, Himanta Biswa Sarma met the Governor at the latter's residence and showed him the letter of support of his MLAs and sought claim to form the next government. The Governor appointed him as Chief Minister-elect and announced that he would take oath on 10 May, Monday.
The next day at
Sankardev Kalakhetra in Guwahati, Himanta Biswa Sarma took oath as the 15th Chief Minister of Assam. Along with him 13 other MLAs of the NDA coalition also took oath as ministers in his
cabinet.
Bypolls
On 28 September 2021, the
Election Commission of India announced the dates of
By-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
to five assembly constituencies of Assam to be held on 30 October and the results will be counted on 2 November.
By-polls to 'Gossaigaon' and 'Tamulpur' have been necessitated due to the death of the sitting MLAs, while the incumbents of 'Bhapanipur', 'Mariani' and 'Thowra' resigned to join the ruling BJP.
On 10 February 2022, the Election Commission of India announced the date of By-election to Majuli Assembly constituency of Assam to be held on 7 March and the results will be counted on 10 March. By-polls to Majuli constituency have been necessitated as the seat was vacated by Union Minister for Shipping, Ports and
AYUSH Sarbananda Sonowal who was elected unopposed to the
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...
on 27 September 2021.
Candidates
Results
Source:
See also
*
2022 Assam municipal elections
*
2019 Indian general election in Assam
The 2019 Indian general election held in India between April and May 2019 to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha. The elections could be held at an earlier date if the Council of Ministers recommends dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha to the President ...
*
2018 Assam panchayat election
Notes
References
External links
Assam General Legislative Electionat the ''
Election Commission of India''
Assam State Election CommissionChief Electoral Officer, Assam
{{DEFAULTSORT:Assam Legislative Assembly election - 2021
2021 State Assembly elections in India
State Assembly elections in Assam
2020s in Assam