GUWAHATI: Bhartiya Janata Party’s Queen Ojha swept the Gauhati Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 3,45,606 votes in the Lok Sabha elections, the results of which were declared on May 23.
While Ojha led with a total of 10,08,936 votes, her nearest rival Bobbeeta Sharma of the Indian National Congress received 6,63,330 votes that were polled in her favour.
Ojha received 57.2 per cent of the total vote share in the constituency. On the other hand, Congress’ Bobbeeta Sharma’s vote share was at 37.61 per cent. On Thursday, the BJP party headquarters erupted in celebrations as soon as the initial trends revealed that the party was leading in a majority of seats in Assam.
This time a total of 17 candidates were in fray from Gauhati Lok Sabha constituency, out of which six were independent candidates.
The seat saw a direct fight between the two women candidates from BJP and Congress and the initial trends on results day showed a neck-to-neck fight for the seat.
Queen Ojha has more political experience than Sharma as Ojha has been active as a politician since the days of the Assam Agitation. She later joined Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and in 1996 became the mayor of Guwahati after winning the Guwahati Municipal Corporation elections.
Poor performance of the incumbent MP Bijoya Chakravarty in her constituency led the BJP to field Ojha this time who joined BJP in 2014 and was fielded by the saffron party for the Gauhati Lok Sabha seat.
Further, Sharma is General Secretary, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) and had unsuccessfully contested the 2016 Assam legislative assembly election from Gauhati East Constituency.
Both the candidates have undergone the experience of losing legislative assembly elections from the same constituency (Gauhati East).
Talking to G Plus during the initial trends out, Bobbeeta Sharma had said, “It has been seen that the people of urban areas are not in support of Congress but people in rural areas vote for the party. This has been the trend.”
“I extend my heartfelt thanks to all the people of No 7 Gauhati Lok Sabha Constituency who voted for me for expressing their faith in me and all our party leaders, members and workers who extended their service and help in this election,” posted Sharma on her Facebook page after the election results. She also congratulated Queen Ojha on her victory.
About Gauhati constituency
Gauhati constituency consists of 10 assembly segments including Dudhnoi (ST), Boko (SC), Chaygaon, Palasbari, Jalukbari, Dispur, Gauhati East, Gauhati West, Hajo and Barkhetry.
As per the state election commission, a total of 2,592 polling booths were set up for the elections.
Further, Gauhati constituency has a total of 21.78 lakh registered voters. Out of this, 11 lakh are male whereas 10.77 lakh are female voters. On the other hand, only 157 third gender voters are registered from the constituency.
This constituency is partially urban, as Guwahati city is also included in the segment. The SCs and STs constitute one-fifth of the total electorate. Further, Muslim voters constitute around four lakh of the population in the constituency.
Before this, the Lok Sabha seat was held by Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Bijoya Chakravarty. She emerged victorious with 7,64,985 votes polled in her favour in 2014. Her nearest rival was Congress’s Manash Borah who bagged 4,49,201 votes.
In the history of Lok Sabha elections in Gauhati, the seat has never had a single predominant party sweeping the elections for consecutive years for a long time.
Additionally, this time a total of 17 contestants had filed their nominations and were in fray from the Gauhati constituency.
Some of the prominent names who contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Gauhati seat include Bobbeeta Sarma from Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Queen Ojha, independent candidate Upamanyu Hazarika and Manoj Sharma from Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Additionally, Bharatiya Gana Parishad's Dr Avijit Chakraborty, independent candidate and lawyer Upamanyu Hazarika and Swarna Bharat Party's Pankaj Das had also filed their nominations.
NOTA gets substantial vote share
As per the results of Lok Sabha elections 2019, NOTA (None of the above) option has seen a substantial vote share in a majority of seats in Assam.
In the Dibrugarh, Nowgong and Lakhimpur Lok Sabha constituencies, third highest number of votes was polled for NOTA, according to final results. The highest votes polled on NOTA across Assam is 21,288 from Dibrugarh. This was followed by 15,220 votes in Lakhimpur constituency.
Further, in a majority of the seats, NOTA option has received more votes than several candidates contesting elections.
In Dhubri, NOTA received 8,978 votes making it the fourth highest option polled among a total of 16 candidates who were in fray.
Additionally, 8,194 people voted for the NOTA option in Autonomous District giving it 1.33 per cent vote share. In Jorhat, Kaliabor and Karimganj too, NOTA received the fourth highest votes with 12,569, 15,913 and 6,555 votes polled respectively.