BJP, allies secure simple majority in Assam

The Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies on Thursday secured simple majority by bagging 64 seats in the 126-member Assam assembly.

The BJP alone has won 44 seats and is leading in 17 while its allies the Asom Gana Parishad won eleven seats and led in three others and Bodo People's Front retained nine seats and was leading in three others.

The Congress, which had 68 seats in the outgoing House, managed to win only 21 seats and was leading in just four others.

The performance of the main opposition party in the outgoing assembly, the All India United Democratic Front turned out to be poor as it won only nine seats and was leading in four others. Compounding its owes, its chief Badruddin Ajmal lost to Congress candidate Wajed Ali Choudhury in South Salmara.

BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal won a convincing victory in Majuli (ST) seat and outgoing Congress chief minister Tarun Gogoi did so in Titabor.

BJP's state election convenor Himanta Biswa Sarma, who left the Congress to join the saffron party, romped home with a record margin 85,935 votes over Congress candidate Niren Deka.

AGP President Atul Bora won against sitting Congress MLA Arun Phukan by 40,193 votes, while his party colleague and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta defeated his Congress rival Suresh Bora by a margin of 4558 votes in Baharampur.

Prominent winners for the Congress were assembly Speaker Pranab Gogoi from Sibsagar, Agriculture Minister Rakibul Hussain from Samaguri, Health Minister Nazrul Islam from Laharighat, Public Works Department Minister Ajanta Neog from Golaghat, Minority Development and Public Health Engineering Department Minister Sukur Ali from Chenga.

In the outgoing assembly, the BJP had six seats, the AIUDF 18, the Bodoland People's Front had 12, the AGP nine, the Trinamool Congress one and independents two.

Ten seats were vacant with nine Congress MLAs disqualified since December 21, 2015 after they joined the BJP and one Congress MLA resigned on September 15, 2015 after joining the BJP.