NAGAON, May 24 - Pushing aside the country-wide Modi undercurrent, the saffron party and its alliance partners faced surrendered two prestigious parliamentary constituencies in middle Assam� Nowgong and Kaliabor to the Opposition Congress. Heavyweight Congress candidate and former minister, Pradyut Bordoloi defeated his nearest BJP candidate and MLA of Nagaon Sadar constituency, Rupak Sarma by a margin of 16,752 votes after a neck to neck fight. Similarly, in Kaliabor LS seat, Congress candidate and the sitting MP Gaurav Gogoi retained the seat for the second term trouncing his nearest BJP alliance candidate, Moni Madhav Mahanta by a margin of 2,09,994 votes.
In Nowgong LS seat, out of 9 LACs under the constituency, Congress candidate, Bordoloi bagged a total of 7,39,724 votes while the BJP candidate Rupak Sarma got 7,22,972 votes. LAC wise the votes Bordoloi secured are as follows: in Jagiroad-74,715, Lahorighat-1,08,824, Morigaon- 58698, Raha-85,300, Nagaon-71,419, Barhampur-52,973, Jamunamukh-1,41,096, Hojai-78,920 and in Lumding-66,936 votes wheras Rupak Sarma got 1,03,929, 41,468, 87,059, 83,660, 72,844, 82,336, 25,298, 1,27,480 and 96,963 votes respectively in those LACs. Bordoloi got 843 postal ballot votes while Sarma obtained 2245 ballot votes.
On the other hand, in Kaliabor LS seat, Gaurav Gogoi got a total of 7,86,092 votes while the BJP alliance candidate Moni Madhav Mahanta bagged 5,76,098 votes. In the 10 LACs, Gaurav Gogoi�s vote count was: Dhing-1,76,478, Rupahi-1,44,384, Batradrava -78,805, Samaguri-77,799, Kaliabor-35,839, Bokakhat- 30,268, Sarupathar-75,472, Golaghat-76,144, Khumtai-39,898 and Dergaon-49927. The BJP alliance candidate Moni Madhav Mahanta got 15,992, 22,495, 47,406, 52,941,74,072, 72,351, 1,05,132, 65,098, 57,146 and 61,823 respectively in those LACs. Similarly, Gogoi got 1078 postal ballot votes while Mahanta secured 1642.
Interestingly, the saffron party had held the Nowgong LS seat for more than 20 years before losing out this time. This has shocked the party workers as well as those voters who have a soft corner for the saffron party.
