Guwahati, Dec 2 (IANS): Assam Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha on Monday claimed that the party candidate lost in the Samaguri by-election due to the arrogance of Dhubri Lok Sabha member Rakibul Hussain.
Purkayastha, although was elected on a Congress ticket in the last Assembly election, announced his support to the BJP government earlier this year. However, he has not joined the ruling party and he remains in the opposition.
He told IANS, “I have known Rakibul Hussain for a very long time. He has become very arrogant in the last few years. The voters of his constituency were always treated badly whenever they went to meet him. It is his arrogance that cost the Congress party to lose the election in Samaguri this time.”
Purkayastha asserted that there was much anger among the people against Hussain in Samaguri. “Voters were very unhappy with the behaviour of the Congress MP and they had decided to teach him a lesson,” he added.
Five Assembly seats in Assam -- Dholai, Behali, Samaguri, Bongaigaon, and Sidli went to bypolls as the legislators in these seats were elected to the Lok Sabha in the general elections this year.
Except for Samaguri, other four constituencies were held by BJP and its allies -- Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL).
Congress drew a blank in the bypolls despite contesting all five seats that went to byelections. The opposition party lost its bastion in the Samaguri Assembly constituency as Congress heavyweight and Dhubri MP Rakibul Hussain’s son Tanzil Hussain was defeated by BJP’s Diplu Ranjan Sarmah.
Rakibul Hussain has been representing Samaguri in the Assembly since 2001 and he vacated this seat after winning Lok Sabha polls this year.
The Congress MP has alleged that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma used the administrative machinery to rig votes in the Samaguri Assembly seat.
The MP said, “We have not lost in Samaguri. It was CM Sarma who used the voting machinery to capture booths and conducted extensive rigging in different places. However, the Congress candidate was leading in many places in the Samaguri Assembly constituency with a good margin of votes.”
Hussain further said that Chief Minister Sarma now desires to get a section of religious minority votes in the upcoming polls and this tendency might be the reason for the BJP’s debacle in the 2026 Assembly election. “I remember once the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) went for Muslim votes ignoring their traditional vote bank. This caused the ousting of AGP from power in the polls,” he stated.