GOALPARA, May 20 - After an inordinate delay due to the complex verification procedure adopted by the Goalpara district administration for the counting of votes, the results of the Assembly elections held here were declared late on Thursday evening. It was a mixed bag of results for the major parties concerned with the Congress winning two seats, and the BJP and the AIUDF bagging one each, out of the four LACs of the district.
In the Dudhnoi (ST) LAC, BJP candidate Dipak Kumar Rabha, who polled 79,983 votes, defeated his nearest INC rival and sitting MLA Shivcharan Basumatary who bagged 51,316 votes. The other candidates in the fray were Bhupendra Rabha (CPI) who got 1,567 votes, Meera Basumatary (AIUDF) who got 11,305 votes, Rajeswar Rabha of RPI (A) who bagged 1,210 votes, Kangkan Khaglary (Ind) who bagged 7,278 votes, Tharman Momin (Ind) who got 1,413 votes, Deben Daimary (Ind) who got 2,936 votes, Rexstar Sangma (Ind) who got 1,054 votes, and Stindro Marak (Ind) who got 850 votes. As many as 1,142 voters exercised the NOTA (None Of The Above) option.
In the Goalpara (East) LAC, there was a neck-and-neck fight between INC candidate Abul Kalam Rashid Alam who polled 57,374 votes and his BJP rival, Gauranga Prasad Das, who polled a total of 54,793 votes, with the former winning by a small margin at the end. The votes garnered by the other candidates are as follows: Shadeed Mazumdar (AIUDF) � 27,778, Abul Kalam Hussein (Ind) � 12,138, Elbarth Marak (AITC) � 7,172 votes, Punam Chand Sharma (Lilu) (NPP) � 6,710, Kofil Uddin Ahmed (NCP) � 971, Birmal Ray (Ind) � 770, Soleman Ali (Bharatiya Rashtriya Party) � 592, Naren Shankar Rabha (Ind) � 592, Mehbubar Rahman of RPI (A) � 483 votes, Mujaharul Islam (Ind) � 447 votes, and Abdul Hamid of SUCI (Communist) � 420. The NOTA option was exercised by 1,064 voters.
In the Goalpara (West) LAC, former MLA Abdur Rashid Mandal (INC) polled 61,007 votes and defeated his nearest rival, sitting AIUDF MLA Sheikh Shah Alam, who polled 36,668 votes. The other candidates were Jabeen Borbhuyan (BJP) � 32,432 votes, Anowar Hussein (AGP) � 1,154 votes, Mohibul Islam of SUCI (Communist) � 1,016 votes, Zesmina Khatun (AITC) � 582 votes, Mizanur Rahman (Ind) � 523 votes, Khanindra Chandra Nath of RPI (A) � 489 votes, Babli Goswami Charavorty (Ind) � 480 votes, Ali Akbar (Jai Mahabharat Party) � 457 votes, Jali Begum (Ind) � 289 votes, Joynal Abedin (NPP) � 269 votes, and Gias Uddin Ahmed (New All India Congress Party) � 252 votes. There were 646 votes under NOTA.
In the Jaleswar LAC, AIUDF candidate Sahab Uddin Ahmed, who polled 56,003 votes, defeated his nearest Independent rival candidate, former INC MLA Aftab Uddin Mollah who got 49,341 votes. The votes shared by other contesting candidates were Abul Fazal Nasiuddin Mollah (INC) � 6,567 votes, Abdur Rahim Gibran (BJP) � 11,535 votes, Abdus Salam of SUCI (Communist) � 761 votes, Abdul Wahab Sheikh (BRP) � 1,433 votes, Khairul Islam Mondal (Ind) � 1,355 votes, Abdus Salam of SUCI (Communist) � 761 votes, and Innas Ali (Ind) � 690 votes. The NOTA was the choice of 627 voters.