Ranjit Dutta (born 24 January 1957) is an Indian politician from the 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 ...

. He is presently a member of Assam Legislative Assembly since 2016 for the Behali constituency. He served as MLA of Behali from 2001 to 2011. He was a minister in the Sarbananda Sonowal-led government from 2016 to 2021.

Early life and education

Dutta was born in Hatibondha, Biswanath on 24 January 1957. His father was the late Kuladhar Dutta and his mother was the late Labanya Dutta. He completed his higher Secondary from Darrang College, Tezpur in the year 1974.

Political career

Dutta was the

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 Modi ...

candidate for the Behali constituency in the 2001 Assam Legislative Assembly election. He obtained 33348 votes, 50.65% of the total vote in the election. He defeated the incumbent congress MLA, Barnabash Tanti, who had been serving for the past 10 years, by 13529 votes. In the

2006 Assam Legislative Assembly election Legislative Assembly elections were held in Assam in two phases between 3 and 10 April 2006 to elect members from all 126 constituencies of the state . Following the election, the incumbent Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi formed his second ministry. ...

, Dutta sought reelection in Behali. He polled 28633 votes in the election. He defeated his nearest opponent, a Congress candidate, by 8979 votes. In the

2011 Assam Legislative Assembly election The 13th Assam Legislative Assembly election was held in two phases on 4 and 11 April 2011 to elect members from 126 constituencies in Assam, India. The result was announced on 13 May. BJP was accused of turning the anti-immigrant feeling in Ass ...

, Dutta sought reelection in Behali. He received 22662 votes, 28.02% of the total vote. He was defeated by Congress candidate and future Lok Sabha MP

Pallab Lochan Das Pallab Lochan Das (born December 31, 1978 in Biswanath Chariali, Assam) is a Bharatiya Janata Party politician from Assam. He was elected in Assam Legislative Assembly election in 2011 (from Behali Vidhan Sabha constituency) and 2016 from Rang ...

, by 18136 votes. In the

2016 Assam Legislative Assembly election The Assam Legislative Assembly Election of 2016 was held in two phases, on 4 and 11 April 2016, to elect members of the 126 constituencies in Assam, a state in North-eastern India. The overall voter turnout was 84.72%, which set a new record for ...

, Dutta tried to seek the Behali seat again. He again became the BJP candidate for the election. He received 52152 votes, 56.2% of the total vote. He defeated his nearest opponent, a congress candidate, by 23601 votes. Dutta was inducted into the Sonowal cabinet as Minister for Handloom, Welfare of Minorities, Textiles & Sericulture. He was sworn in as a cabinet minister on 24 May 2016 at Guwahati. In the

2021 Assam Legislative Assembly election The 2021 Assam Legislative Assembly election was the 15th quinquennial State legislative assemblies of India, legislative assembly election held in the Indian state of Assam from March 27 to April 6 in three phases, to elect 126 Member of the L ...

, he sought reelection. He received 53583 votes, 50.93% of the total vote. He defeated his nearest opponent by 29839 votes. He was not inducted into the

Sarma Ministry Himanta Biswa Sarma was sworn in as Chief Minister of Assam on 10 May 2021, which led to the formation of his ministry and the current Government of Assam. He succeeded his colleague Sarbananda Sonowal. He was administered the oath by Governor Jagd ...

Personal life

Dutta married Gita Dutta on 1 May 1991. They have one son and one daughter. Dutta has a special interest in social service.

References

Living people Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Assam State cabinet ministers of Assam Assam MLAs 2016–2021 People from Sonitpur district Assam MLAs 2021–2026 1957 births {{Assam-BJP-politician-stub