GUWAHATI, Sept 11: The BJP’s decision to field former bureaucrat Devashish Sharma in the Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll is a calculated attempt by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to challenge Congress in a constituency where the BJP has a strong organisational base but faces a significant demographic hurdle.
The BJP officially named Sharma as its candidate on September 11, betting on the former Nagaon district commissioner’s administrative experience and cross-community appeal to consolidate the party’s existing support while making inroads into the Muslim electorate.
The October 6 bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of two-term Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi, who joined the BJP ahead of the 2026 Assembly election and later won the Dispur seat.
Nagaon’s electoral arithmetic changed significantly after the 2023 delimitation, with the inclusion of Muslim-dominated Dhing, Rupahihat and Samaguri increasing the estimated Muslim share of the Lok Sabha electorate from around 40 per cent to more than 50 per cent.
The shift was reflected in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Bordoloi secured 788,850 votes, or 50.9 per cent, defeating BJP candidate Suresh Borah by 212,231 votes. The BJP polled 576,619 votes, or 37.2 per cent, while AIUDF candidate Aminul Islam secured 137,340 votes.
The BJP therefore enters the bypoll with a substantial core vote but needs to make inroads into the minority electorate while retaining its existing support. Sharma’s candidature is central to that strategy.
Sharma served as a bureaucrat for 34 years and spent his final government posting as Nagaon district commissioner. His administrative role gave him a personal connect across communities, while his accessible approach earned him goodwill among sections of the minority population.
His public profile also extends beyond Nagaon. During his posting at Assam Bhawan in Mumbai, Sharma became associated with assisting cancer patients from Assam seeking treatment at Tata Memorial Hospital. He proposed using Assam Bhawan in Navi Mumbai as a shelter for cancer patients and later founded Deepsikha, a trust working in cancer care. During the Covid lockdown, he also coordinated the return of stranded cancer patients from Mumbai to Assam.
Sharma’s administrative and social profile could make the contest less dependent on traditional party loyalties. The BJP hopes his local connect will help it make incremental gains among voters beyond its conventional support base.
His entry into electoral politics had also been anticipated in political circles. He took voluntary retirement with only months of government service remaining and joined the BJP days later. His earlier posting as Nagaon DC was viewed by some as preparation for a possible electoral role.
Nagaon has not always been a Congress stronghold. BJP’s Rajen Gohain won the constituency four consecutive times from 1999 to 2014. Congress regained it in 2019, when Bordoloi defeated BJP’s Rupak Sharma by 16,752 votes.
AIUDF’s decision to field former AAMSU leader Rejaul Karim Sarkar could further influence the contest. The party rejected Congress appeals for opposition unity, raising the possibility of a division in the minority vote that strongly backed Bordoloi in 2024.
The BJP’s strategy therefore rests on retaining its existing support, using Sharma’s administrative goodwill to make inroads into the Muslim electorate and benefiting from any Congress-AIUDF vote division. The party does not need Sharma to transform Nagaon’s electoral landscape overnight. It needs him to shift enough votes across the constituency’s demographic divide to turn a traditionally difficult contest into a winnable one.
