Assam: For BJP ally, bye-election win a boost for 2025 Bodoland Territorial Council elections

UPPL's record byelection win in Sidli boosts confidence for 2025 BTC elections, emphasizing peace-driven development model.

GUWAHATI

A record byelection victory for its candidate in the Sidli Assembly constituency has boosted the confidence of the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) ahead of the elections to Assam’s Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in 2025.

The win has also made the UPPL, one of two regional allies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam, believe that its “peace-driven development model” has more takers to help it retain power in the BTC straddling 40 constituencies.

Election results 2024: Maharashtra | Jharkhand | Bypolls

The Sidli contest was a major challenge for UPPL candidate Nirmal Kumar Brahma. He not only had to retain the seat vacated by Joyanta Basumatary but win convincingly enough to give a message that the party was better than its rivals for the multi-ethnic Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) that the BTC governs.

Mr. Basumatary vacated Sidli after winning the Kokrajhar Lok Sabha seat for the UPPL earlier this year. His victory ended a two-term drought for any registered political party in Kokrajhar.

Mr. Brahma not only defeated Suddho Kumar Basumatary of the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) but his margin of victory – 37,016 votes – was one of the highest for the 12 Assembly constituencies across BTC ever. Nine of these seats are with NDA (UPPL eight and BJP one) while the BPF, which ruled the BTC for 17 years until the UPPL assumed power in 2020, has three.