Northeast Assembly bypolls: Family politics to the fore

Tanzil Hussain, Congress candidate for the Samaguri seat in central Assam, with Rahul Gandhi.
| Photo Credit: X/@Tanzil_NSUI

Aditya Golay Tamang, son of Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang, won the Soreng Chakung Assembly constituency unopposed, highlighting the family politics ruling the bypolls in three northeastern States.

He was one of the two Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) candidates to win without an election. The other was Satish Chandra Rai, who won the Namchi-Singithang seat after his Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) rival Daniel Rai withdrew from the polls.

The SDF’s Prem Bahadur Bhandari withdrew his candidature from Soreng Chakung, paving the way for Mr. Tamang’s uncontested victory.

Eight seats in all

The outcome in Sikkim leaves six seats in Assam and Meghalaya, where the byelections will be held on November 13.

The election of the MLAs to the Lok Sabha necessitated the bypolls in five Assembly seats — Behali, Bongaigaon, Dholai, Samaguri, and Sidli — in Assam and the Gambegre constituency in Meghalaya. In Sikkim, the Chief Minister gave up Soreng Chakung, one of two seats he had won, while his wife Krishna Kumar Rai resigned from Namchi-Singithang. “It is an honour to represent the people of Soreng-Chakung,” Mr. Aditya Golay said.

Congress bastion

The spotlight in Meghalaya’s Gambegre constituency is on Mehtab Chandee A. Sangma, the wife of Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma and the nominee of the ruling National People’s Party (NPP). A doctor by profession, she is making her debut in electoral politics.

One of her rivals is Sadhiarani M. Sangma, a member of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council and the wife of former Minister Zenith Sangma. She is the Trinamool Congress candidate.

The two women and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate, former extremist Bernard N. Marak, are confident of winning Gambegre, a Congress bastion.

‘Merit, the yardstick’

“We choose our candidates on merit. The report we have received from the ground is that the people are happy with our candidate and she is ahead in the race,” senior NPP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar said. Two other candidates in the fray in Gambegre are Independents.

The nomination of 38 candidates has been found valid across five constituencies in Assam. The youngest among them is 26-year-old Tanzil Hussain, the Congress candidate for the Samaguri seat in central Assam.

He is the son of former Assam Minister Rakibul Hussain, who held Samaguri since 2001 until he was elected the MP from the Dhubri constituency in May. “If elected, I hope to carry on the good work done by my father,” he said. One of his rivals is the BJP’s Diplu Ranjan Sarmah, the richest among the contestants, with total assets valued at ₹1.37 crore.

In western Assam’s Bongaigaon constituency, the Asom Gana Parishad’s nominee is Diptimoyee Choudhury, the wife of former Minister Phani Bhushan Choudhury, who resigned from the seat after becoming the MP from Barpeta. Mr. Choudhury, who never lost the Bongaigaon seat since 1983, said he would not contest any election in the future.