Guwahati: The Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll is turning into a high-stakes contest where the minority vote is expected to play a decisive role as BJP’s Debasish Sharma, Congress’s Sibamoni Bora and a possible AIUDF candidate, party chief Badruddin Ajmal, gear up for a triangular battle.The AICC on Monday named Bora as its candidate, choosing her from a list of five probables. The entry of Trinamool Congress candidate Abdul Salam has added another dimension to the opposition contest.Over 11.38 lakh voters across five Assembly constituencies are eligible to vote in the bypoll, with about 55-60% minority electorate likely to play a decisive role, a political analyst said.AICC general secretary and the party’s Assam in-charge Bhupesh Baghel met Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Monday before finalisation of the candidature of Bora for Nagaon seat.“Congress president, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, has approved the candidature of Smt. Sibamoni Bora, ex-MLA, as party candidate to contest the ensuing by-election to the Lok Sabha from 9 – Nagaon parliamentary constituency of Assam,” AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said in a media release.Bora, a former Batadraba MLA, had sought the Dhing seat in the last assembly election after delimitation shifted a significant portion of her constituency, including Muslim-majority areas, to Dhing. However, the seat was allotted to Akhil Gogoi’s Raijor Dal under the Congress-Raijor Dal seat-sharing pact, which Congress recently ended.BJP candidate Sharma has been campaigning in both minority-dominated and Hindu-majority areas. “I have been visiting different places — namghars, temples, mosques and gurdwaras — leaving none out. I have visited all these places, and I love and respect all of them…,” said Sharma, a former IAS officer and former Nagaon deputy commissioner. He visited Borbori, a Muslim-majority area affected by erosion, on Monday.The bypoll was necessitated after Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi resigned from the party and subsequently switched to BJP ahead of the last assembly election.
