The 2021 Assam Legislative Assembly election was the 15th quinquennial legislative assembly election held in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n state of

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

from March 27 to April 6 in three phases, to elect 126

MLAs A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several nationa ...

to the 15th

Assam Legislative Assembly The Assam Legislative Assembly is the unicameral Assam Legislature, legislature of the List of states and union territories of India, Indian state of Assam. It is housed in Dispur, the capital city of Assam, geographically situated in present L ...

. 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-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 The Raijor Dal (; RD) is an List of political parties in India, Indian political party based in the state of Assam. The party believes in the principles of Secularism, Socialism, Federalism, Progressivism, and opposes the Citizenship (Amendm ...

founder and President

Akhil Gogoi Akhil Gogoi is an Indian peasant leader, RTI activist, and Member of Assam Legislative Assembly from Sibsagar since 2021. He is also the founder and president of Raijor Dal since 2020. Over the years he has been leading many anti-graft movements ...

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, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

(INC), which had formed the government under

Tarun Gogoi Tarun Gogoi (1 April 1936 – 23 November 2020) was an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the 13th Chief Minister of Assam from 2001 to 2016. He was the longest serving Chief Minister of Assam. He was a member of the Indian National Con ...

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 List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

led by

Sarbananda Sonowal Sarbananda Sonowal (; born 31 October 1962) is an Indian politician who has served as Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways since 2021. He also has been the Government of India, Member of the Rajy ...

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 (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 The Boro (बर'/बड़ो ), also called Bodo, are a Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman speaking ethnolinguistic group native to the state of Assam in India. They are a part of the greater Bodo-Kachari people, Bodo-Kachari family of e ...

(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 is a city and the administrative centre of Dhubri district in the 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 board un ...

Goalpara Goalpara ) is a city and 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 ...

Barpeta Barpeta is a town in Barpeta district of the state of Assam in India and is district headquarters. The city is located north west of Guwahati and is one of the major cities in Western Assam. It is also called Satra ''Nagari'' (Temple town) of ...

Morigaon Morigaon (pron: mʌrɪˈgãʊ) is a town and the district headquarters of Morigaon district in the Indian state of Assam. It also serves as the headquarters of the Tiwa Autonomous Council. Geography Morigaon, the administrative headquarters ...

Nagaon Nagaon is a city and a municipal board in Nagaon district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Assam. It is situated east of Guwahati. With a population of 1,16,355 as per 2011 census it is an AMRUT City and 4th biggest city ...

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 Pr ...

Karimganj Karimganj, officially Sribhumi, is a town in the Karimganj district of the Indian States and territories of India, state of Assam. It is the administrative headquarters of the district. Karimganj town is located at . The area of Karimganj Tow ...

, South Salmara–Mankachar,

Hailakandi Hailakandi (pron:ˈhaɪləˌkʌndi) is a town and the district headquarters of Hailakandi district in the Indian state of Assam. Hailakandi is located at . Demography Bengali and Meitei ( Manipuri) are the official languages of this place. ...

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. Etymology The etymology of Darrang reflects its historical significance ...

and

Bongaigaon Bongaigaon () is an industrial town in the Indian state of Assam. Its urban area spans across Bongaigaon and Chirang district. It also acts as the district headquarters of Bongaigaon district and commercial and industrial hub of the west par ...

. 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 scan voting system, optical scanning'' and ''direct-recording electronic voting machine, direct recording'' (DRE). Optical scanning ...

(EVM) in Ratabari constituency in

Karimganj district Karimganj district, officially Sribhumi district, is one of the 35 List of districts of Assam, districts of the Indian state of Assam. The district's administrative headquarters and largest town is Karimganj. Located in southern Assam, it shares ...

was transported to the strong room through a car belonging to relative of

Krishnendu Paul Krishnendu Paul is a Minister in the Government of Assam. He represents the Patharkandi constituency in the Assam Legislative Assembly and is affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His role as a minister involves overseeing key port ...

, 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. Bengali and Meitei(Manipuri) are the ...

, 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 the 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 Representation of the People Act, 1951 is an act of Parliament of India to provide for the conduct of election of the Parliament of India, Houses of Parliament and to the House or Houses of the Vidhan Sabha, Legislature of each State, the ...

. 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 , 6,384,538 , 33.21 , 3.70 , 93 , 60 , , - , bgcolor=, , AGP , 1,519,777 , 7.91 , 0.23 , 22 , 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 Secular Democratic Alliance or Sanjukta Morcha is a political alliance formed ahead of the 2024 Indian general election in West Bengal by the Left Front and the Indian National Congress in opposition to the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya ...

, 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)) is a communist political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electoral seats, and one of the six national parties of India. ...

, 160,758 , 0.84 , 0.29 , 2 , 1 , 1 , - , bgcolor=#CDCDCD, ,

IND Ind or IND may refer to: General * Independent (politician), a politician not affiliated to any political party * Independent station, used within television program listings and the television industry for a station that is not affiliated with ...

, 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 , 4 , 0 , , - , bgcolor=, ,

RJD The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: National People's Party) is an Indian political party, mainly based in the state of Bihar. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has traditionally been Othe ...

, 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="", ,

, 1,139,423 , 5.93 , 5.11 , ''N/A'' , 1 , , - , bgcolor="" , , NOTA , 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

, speculations suggested that

Himanta Biswa Sarma Himanta Biswa Sarma (born 1 February 1969) is an Indian politician and lawyer serving as the 15th and current Chief Minister of Assam since 2021. A former member of the Indian National Congress, Sarma joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 23 Au ...

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 (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

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 Amitbhai Anilchandra Shah (born 22 October 1964) is an Indian politician who is currently serving as the 32nd Ministry of Home Affairs (India), Minister of Home Affairs since May 2019 and the 1st Ministry of Co-operation, Minister of Co-operat ...

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 A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

in Guwahati, the BJP legislative party meeting was constituted where

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 Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

Bypolls

On 28 September 2021, the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body established by Constitution of India, the Constitution of the Republic of India empowered to conduct free and fair elections in the Republic of India. It is headed by a Chief Ele ...

announced the dates of the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

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

who was elected unopposed to the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

on 27 September 2021. On 15 October 2024, the Election Commission of India announced the date of By-election to five assembly constituencies of Assam to be held on 13 November 2024 and the results will be counted on 23 November 2024. By-polls to all the five constituencies have been necessitated as all the incumbent MLAs contested the elections to the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...

earlier this year and got elected.

Candidates

Results

Source:

Notes

References

External links

Assam General Legislative Election
at the ''

''
Assam State Election Commission

Chief Electoral Officer, Assam
{{Assam elections

State Assembly elections in Assam 2020s in Assam

Background

Demographics

Voter statistics

Schedule

Parties and alliances

Candidates

Surveys and polls

Voting

Turnout

Events

Repoll

Results

Results by party/alliance

Results by district/division

Results by constituency

Aftermath

Bypolls

Candidates

Results

See also

Notes

References

External links