2004 Indian general election in Assam

2004 Indian general election in Assam

April–May 2004
14 seats
First party Second party Third party   AGP Leader Tarun Gogoi Rameshwar Teli Brindaban Goswami Party INC BJP Asom Gana Parishad Last election 10 2 0 Seats won 9 2 2 Seat change 1 2 Popular vote 3,637,405 2,379,524 2,069,600 Percentage 35.07% 22.94% 19.95%
Assam
Prime Minister before election A. B. Vajpayee BJP Prime Minister after election Manmohan Singh INC

The 2004 Indian general election polls in Assam were held for 14 seats in the state. The result was United Progressive Alliance winning nine out of the 14 seats, while the National Democratic Alliance, captured only three seats. Asom Gana Parishad managed to get two seats.

In Assam, there was a three-cornered contest between Congress, BJP and Asom Gana Parishad (the main regional party of the state). Congress contested all 14 seats in the states, BJP 12 and AGP 12. BJP supported one JD(U) candidate and the Bodo nationalist candidate in Kokrajhar. The left parties (CPI(M), CPI and CPI(ML)L) had a joint front. Congress won nine seats. AGP got a comeback, winning two seats. BJP also won two seats, although one of them was the popular singer Bhupen Hazarika. Hazarika stood in Guwahati, and his election ought to reflect his personal popularity, rather than that of the party he had just joined. CPI(ML)L lost its seat in the Karbi Anlong hills, largely due to a split in their mass organisation there and the resurgence of communal violence in the area. In Kokrajhar the Bodo nationalist and NDA-supported candidate, Sansuma Khunggur Bwiswmuthiary, retained his seat.

Schedule

The schedule of the election was announced by the Election Commission of India on 29 February 2004.

Poll event	Phase
	1	2
Date of announcement	29 February 2004
Notification date	24 March 2004	31 March 2004
Last date for filing nomination	31 March 2004	7 April 2004
Scrutiny of nomination	2 April 2004	8 April 2004
Last date for withdrawal of nomination	5 April 2004	10 April 2004
Date of poll	20 April 2004	26 April 2004
Date of counting of votes	13 May 2004
No. of constituencies	6	8

Parties and alliances

  United Progressive Alliance

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Seats contested
	Indian National Congress			Tarun Gogoi	14

  National Democratic Alliance

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Seats contested
	Bharatiya Janata Party			Rameshwar Teli	12
	Janata Dal (United)			Nitish Kumar	1
	Independent			Sansuma Khunggur Bwiswmuthiary	1

  Asom Gana Parishad

Party		Flag	Symbol	Leader	Seats contested
	Asom Gana Parishad			Brindaban Goswami	12

List of candidates

Constituency
		UPA			NDA			AGP
1	Karimganj (SC)		INC	Lalit Mohan Suklabaidya		BJP	Parimal Suklabaidya		AGP	Nepal Chandra Das
2	Silchar		INC	Santosh Mohan Dev		BJP	Kabindra Purkayastha
3	Autonomous District (ST)		INC	Biren Sing Engti		BJP	Ratan Teron		AGP	Sailendra Hasnu
4	Dhubri		INC	Anwar Hussain		BJP	Jabeen Borbhuyan		AGP	Afzalur Rahman
5	Kokrajhar (ST)		INC	Derhagra Mochahary		IND	S. K. Bwiswmuthiary
6	Barpeta		INC	A. F. Golam Osmani		BJP	Ranjit Thakuria		AGP	Kumar Deepak Das
7	Gauhati		INC	Kirip Chaliha		BJP	Bhupen Hazarika		AGP	Bhrigu Kumar Phukan
8	Mangaldoi		INC	Madhab Rajbangshi		BJP	Narayan Chandra Borkataky		AGP	Apurba Bhattacharjee
9	Tezpur		INC	Moni Kumar Subba		BJP	Ghisa Lal Agarwalla		AGP	Padma Hazarika
10	Nowgong		INC	Bishnu Prasad		BJP	Rajen Gohain		AGP	Dhruba Kumar Saikia
11	Kaliabor		INC	Dip Gogoi]		JD(U)	Rashidul Haque		AGP	Keshab Mahanta
12	Jorhat		INC	Bijoy Krishna Handique		BJP	Dayananda Borgohain		AGP	Dulal Chandra Baruah
13	Dibrugarh		INC	Paban Singh Ghatowar		BJP	Kamakhya Prasad Tasa		AGP	Sarbananda Sonowal
14	Lakhimpur		INC	Ranee Narah		BJP	Uday Shankar Hazarika		AGP	Arun Kumar Sarmah

Results by Alliance

Coalition/Alliance	Parties contesting in Assam from the Alliance in 1999	Seats won in 1999 Election	Parties contesting in Assam from the Alliance in 2004	Seats won in 2004 Election	Swing
National Democratic Alliance	-Bharatiya Janata Party (2) -Asom Gana Parishad	2	Bharatiya Janata Party	2	0
United Progressive Alliance	Indian National Congress*	10	Indian National Congress	9	−1
Left Front	-Communist Party of India -Communist Party of India -Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (1)	1	-Communist Party of India -Communist Party of India -Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation	0	−1
Other parties	Independent	1	-Asom Gana Parishad (2) -Independent (1)	3	+2

• Note: UPA was not in existence in 1999, instead the number of seats won in 1999, represents the seats won by Indian National Congress
• Note: Left front, was not part of the UPA, in 2004, instead gave outside support.

Results by Party

Alliance/ Party				Popular vote			Seats
				Votes	%	±pp	Contested	Won	+/−
	INC			36,37,405	35.07	3.35	14	9	1
	NDA		BJP	23,79,524	22.94	6.90	12	2
			IND	6,89,620	6.65		1	1	1
			JD(U)	1,25,966	1.21		1	0
		Total		31,95,110	30.80		14	3
	AGP			20,69,600	19.95	8.03	12	2	2
	CPI			1,72,332	1.66	1.08	1	0
	CPI(M-L)L			1,08,837	1.05	1.20	3	0	1
	SP			1,09,088	1.05	0.85	4	0
	ASDC			1,01,808	0.98		1	0
	CPI(M)			68,627	0.66	1.11	2	0
	Others			2,07,964	2.00		19	0
	IND			7,01,318	6.76	2.60	46	0	1
Total				1,03,72,089	100%	-	116	14	-

Results by constituency

Keys:   INC (9)   BJP (2)   AGP (2)   IND (1)

Constituency		Winner					Runner Up					Margin	%
#	Name	Candidate	Party		Votes	%	Candidate	Party		Votes	%
1	Karimganj (SC)	Lalit Suklabaidya		INC	3,21,059	47.81	Parimal Suklabaidya		BJP	2,29,111	34.12	91,948	13.69
2	Silchar	Santosh Mohan Dev		INC	2,46,215	40.48	Kabindra Purkayastha		BJP	2,24,895	36.98	21,320	3.50
3	Autonomous District (ST)	Biren Sing Engti		INC	1,25,937	31.38	Elwin Teron		ASDC	1,01,808	25.36	24,129	6.02
4	Dhubri	Anwar Hussain		INC	3,76,588	43.61	Afzalur Rahman		AGP	2,59,966	30.10	1,16,622	13.51
5	Kokrajhar (ST)	S. K. Bwiswmuthiary		IND	6,89,620	71.32	Sabda Ram Rabha		IND	2,05,491	21.25	4,84,129	50.07
6	Barpeta	A. F. Golam Osmani		INC	2,66,972	35.00	Kumar Deepak Das		AGP	1,98,847	26.07	68,125	8.93
7	Gauhati	Kirip Chaliha		INC	3,53,250	40.06	Bhupen Hazarika		BJP	2,92,099	33.13	61,151	6.93
8	Mangaldoi	Narayan Borkataky		BJP	3,45,863	40.74	Madhab Rajbangshi		INC	3,15,997	37.22	29,866	3.52
9	Tezpur	Moni Kumar Subba		INC	2,89,847	40.27	Padma Hazarika		AGP	2,19,402	30.48	70,445	9.79
10	Nowgong	Rajen Gohain		BJP	3,42,704	43.60	Bisnu Prasad		INC	3,11,292	39.60	31,412	4.00
11	Kaliabor	Dip Gogoi		INC	3,01,893	39.56	Keshab Mahanta		AGP	2,34,695	30.76	67,198	8.80
12	Jorhat	Bijoy Krishna Handique		INC	2,23,624	33.54	Drupad Borgohain		CPI	1,72,332	25.84	51,292	7.70
13	Dibrugarh	Sarbananda Sonowal		AGP	2,20,944	35.00	Kamakhya Tasa		BJP	2,02,390	32.06	18,554	2.94
14	Lakhimpur	Arun Sarmah		AGP	3,00,865	37.61	Ranee Narah		INC	2,72,717	34.09	28,148	3.52

Post-election Union Council of Ministers from Assam

#	Name	Constituency	Designation	Department	From	To	Party
1	Manmohan Singh	Rajya Sabha (Assam)	Prime Minister	Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Ministry of Planning; Department of Atomic Energy; Department of Space	22 May 2004	22 May 2009		INC
2	Santosh Mohan Dev	Silchar (Lok Sabha)	MoS (I/C); Cabinet Minister (from 29 Jan 2006)	Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises; Ministry of Water Resources (18 Nov 2005 – 29 Jan 2006)	23 May 2004	22 May 2009
3	Bijoy Krishna Handique	Jorhat (Lok Sabha)	MoS	Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs (until 6 April 2008); Ministry of Defence (until 29 Jan 2006); Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers (from 29 Jan 2006); Ministry of Mines (from 6 April 2008)	23 May 2004	22 May 2009

Results by constituency

General Election, 2004: Karimganj

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	INC	Lalit Mohan Suklabaidya	321,059	47.81
	BJP	Parimal Sukla Baidya	229,111	34.12
	AGP	Nepal Chandra Das	106,546	15.87
	Independent	Babul Ram Das	3,925	0.58
	Independent	Sushil Kumar Das	3,641	0.54
	Independent	Radha Kanta Tanty	2,862	0.43
	Independent	Lukendra Roy	2,386	0.36
	Independent	Babul Roy	1,960	0.29
Majority			91,948
Turnout			671,491	68.91
	INC hold		Swing

General Election, 2004: Autonomous District

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	INC	Biren Singh Engti	125,937	31.38
	ASDC(U)	Elwin Teron	101,808	25.36
	CPI(ML)L	Dr. Jayanta Rongpi	74,399	18.54
	BJP	Ratan Teron	57,584	14.35
	Independent	Sanmoni Temprai	26,713	6.66
	Independent	Chember G. Momin	8,003	1.99
	AGP	Sailendra Hasnu	3,755	0.94
	SAP	Harsing Teron	3,178	0.79
Majority			24,129
Turnout			401,377	69.42
	INC gain from CPI(ML)L		Swing