A shock defeat for the Congress in the Samaguri constituency – a seat it had held since 2000 – helped the BJP and its allies achieve a clean sweep in the Assam bypolls for five assembly seats.

The BJP contested three seats and its candidates won each one – Diplu Ranjan Sarmah in Samaguri, Diganta Ghatowal in Behali, and Nihar Ranjan Das in Dholai. It supported its allies in the two other assembly segments – Diptimayee Choudhury from the Asom Gana Parishad swept the Bongaigaon seat, while Nirmal Kumar Brahma from the United People’s Party Liberal won in Sidli with a significant lead.

While four of these seats had earlier been held by MLAs from the same parties, the BJP’s biggest win is in Samaguri, a seat with a sizeable minority population that had been represented by Assam Congress heavyweight Rakibul Hussain for five consecutive terms since 2000.

Before Rakibul’s long tenure as MLA there, his father Nurul Hussain, also a Congress leader, had represented the seat for two terms in the 1980s and the 1990s.

In the bypolls, the Congress had fielded Rakibul’s 26-year-old son Tanzil from the seat, with Rakibul leading his campaign.

The campaign seat saw multiple instances of poll-related violence, resulting in injuries to workers of both parties.

Throughout counting day, the trends oscillated between both candidates. However, while counting was still underway as of 5:30 pm, Diplu Ranjan Sarmah was ahead by 22,833 votes after 15 out of 19 rounds of counting.

After his victory became clear, Sarma, who is the Assam Pradesh General Secretary of the BJP, called his win an outcome of a development narrative. “When we do politics, these things (demography of voters) are there, but I personally never thought of people as minority or majority. I only had the message of sabka saath, sabka vikaas, sabka prayas. With this message we had gone to the people. We had gone to all saying ‘justice to all, appeasement to none’… At a time that the Congress had done communal politics, I had done the politics of development,” he said.

After conceding his son’s defeat, Rakibul claimed the outcome was rigged. “On the day of the election itself I had said that the way in which 22,000-33,000 votes had been rigged, we cannot defeat that… That (minority votes going to the BJP) is the matter of concern, that many minority people from here are working in other places, in Kerala, Andhra, Bangalore. But those people have been shown as voting here,” he claimed.

This was echoed by Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah, even as he admitted that its loss in Samaguri stings the party the most. “Many young people from the area have gone to Kerala, Andhra Pradesh to work. At the time when thousands of youths are in other states, at that time votes were cast in their names. We have made complaints with the ECI, DC, SEC… The election was fought with sticks and stones in Samaguri, and I think that in the future, the people of Assam will not support this process,” he said.

Assam BJP chief Bhabesh Kalita said the results foreshadow the 2026 Assam assembly election. “This is a run-up to our victory in 2026, when the BJP and CM Himanta Biswa Sarma will have a big victory… The Congress hadn’t even thought we would win in Samaguri… There was a fight there and we had accepted that there would be a fight because the demography is different there,” he said.

In the other significant outcome in the Northeast bypolls, the ruling National People’s Party broke the Congress’s winning streak in Meghalaya’s Gambegre assembly seat, with Mehtab Chandee Sangma, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s wife, clinching the seat in her electoral debut.

The seat had become vacant after three-time MLA Saleng Sangma won from the Tura Lok Sabha seat. The Gambegre outcome is a shot in the arm for the political fortunes of both the NPP and the Sangma family, which had suffered a setback with Saleng Sangma defeating Agatha Sangma, Conrad’s sister, in Tura earlier this year. Apart from a two-year gap between 1989 and 1991, the Tura seat has been held by members of the family – Agatha, Conrad and their father P A Sangma – since 1977.

“History has been made in Gambegre. A heartfelt thank you to the people for placing their trust in Dr Mehtab Chandee A Sangma and supporting her vision for a brighter tomorrow. This victory is a testament to your unwavering belief in progress, unity, and development. Together, we will work towards making Gambegre a beacon of hope and opportunity. This is not just a win for our family, but for every single person who dreams of a stronger, better Meghalaya. Here’s to a new chapter of service and commitment,” wrote Conrad in a social media post.