The BJP wrested the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat from the Congress on Friday, with saffron party candidate Devasish Sharma defeating his nearest rival AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal by 1,42,224 votes in the bypoll, the Election Commission said.
Sharma, a former IAS officer, polled 7,14,349 votes, while Ajmal, the Binnakandi legislator, bagged 5,72,125 votes. Former Congress MLA Sibamoni Bora finished a distant third with 1,29,492 votes, according to data available on the EC website.
The bye-election to the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency was necessitated after Congress' Pradyut Bordoloi, who held the seat since 2019, resigned from the grand old party to join the ruling BJP. He successfully contested this year's assembly elections from the Dispur constituency.
Fifteen candidates contested the Lok Sabha bypoll, and most forfeited their deposits, officials said.
The parliamentary constituency has eight assembly segments spread across Nagaon and Morigaon districts.
A voter turnout of 76.19 per cent was recorded in the October 6 bypoll.
The process started with postal ballots, followed by votes recorded in EVMs. Counting is being held at two centres -- Dawson Higher Secondary School and Nagaon Government Boys' School in Nagaon -- with 14 tables at each centre.
The parliamentary constituency has eight assembly segments spread over the two districts of Nagaon and Morigaon.
Tight security arrangements have been made at both the centres, and all candidates and political parties have been directed to seek permission from the district administration before taking out any procession. The main contest is between Sharma, Bora and Ajmal.
A total of 15 candidates are in the fray in the bypoll. A voter turnout of 76.19 per cent was recorded in the October 6 by-election.
The bypoll was necessitated after Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi resigned and successfully contested the assembly elections from Dispur on a BJP ticket earlier this year.
The result, however, will not impact the balance of power in Parliament.
The Nagaon constituency has 19.05 lakh electors, including 9.43 lakh women and 50 third-gender voters, who were eligible to cast their votes across 2,312 polling stations.