Assam Rajya Sabha Election Results 2022: The BJP-led NDA in Assam has won both the Rajya Sabha seats in the state, elections and counting for which were held yesterday. The results were declared late at night after high drama due to cross-voting by Opposition MLAs that deflated the Congress party’s hope of winning one seat of the two on offer.

The development comes as a huge loss of face for the Congress which once had Prime Minister (Dr Manmohan Singh) as its Rajya Sabha representative from Assam. The Congress, which ruled the state till 2015, was voted out in 2016 when the BJP secured its first victory in Assam with the help of Congress turncoat Himanta Biswa Sarma. The saffron party retained power in the 2021 elections and Sarma was appointed as the Chief Minister of the state.

Sarma played a crucial role in ensuring the BJP’s victory in the Rajya Sabha elections. Sarma not only appealed to the Opposition members to vote for the ruling party’s candidates but is also believed to have worked behind the scenes to ensure that Rwngra Narzary of ally UPPL gets a comfortable majority.

BJP’s Pabitra Margherita and its ally UPPL’s Rwngra Narzary were elected to Rajya Sabha from Assam, while Congress nominee and outgoing MP Ripun Bora failed to retain the seat due to cross-voting. While Margherita polled 46 votes, Narzary secured 44 votes as the cross-voting reduced Bora’s tally to 35. All 126 MLAs of the Assam assembly cast their votes while one vote of a Congress MLA was found to be invalid.

In the Assam assembly, the ruling NDA has 79 seats, with 63 of BJP, nine of AGP and seven of UPPL. The combined strength of the opposition parties in the House is 47, with 27 of the Congress, 15 of AIUDF, three of BPF and one of CPI(M), and one Independent. BPF had already lent its support to the state government though it is yet to formally enter into a political alliance.

The Congress reacted by suspending three of its MLAs – Sashi Kanta Das, Siddeque Ahmed and Sherman Ali Ahmed for violating the party’s whip. Das had earlier announced that he would vote for the NDA candidates.

The Congress suspended its Karimganj (South) MLA Ahmed with immediate effect for intentionally writing ‘one’ in words instead of numerics while casting his vote, leading to his vote being declared invalid.

The counting of votes was delayed following complaints by opposition Congress to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) against five MLAs, including three from the BJP and one each from the Congress and the BPF.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the winning candidates had got the ‘conscience votes’ of the opposition.

Congress has alleged that after betraying the opposition candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls, five MLAs of the AIUDF went to the chief minister’s residence this morning. “The MLAs — Sonai’s Karimuddin Barbhuiya, Badarpur’s Abdul Aziz, Chenga’s Ashraful Hussain, Jania’s Hafiz Rafikul Islam and Dhing’s Aminul Islam — were seen entering Sarma’s residence at 6 AM and they came out from there around 8.30 AM,” party spokesperson Manjit Mahanta told PTI.

The two Rajya Sabha seats were earlier held by Congress members Ripun Bora and Ranee Narah.