Assam Assembly election 2021, Sonari profile: Sitting BJP MLA Nabanita Handique won 2019 bypoll

The Sonari Assembly constituency falls under the Jorhat Lok Sabha segment and is part of the Sivasagar district. The Sonari constituency will go to the polls on 27 March as part of the  first phase  of the 2021 Assam Assembly election. Counting of votes will take place on 2 May.

Voter turnout in previous elections

There are a total number of 1,51,738 registered voters in the Sonari constituency, of which 79,276 are men and 72,462 are women. The voter turnout in the 2016 Assembly election was 86.38 percent. Meanwhile, in the 2011 election, the voter turnout was 72.34 percent.

Past election results and winners

BJP’s Topon Kumar Gogoi had won the seat in the 2016 polls by garnering 73,327 votes or 55.83 percent of the vote share. The runner-up was the Congress’ Sarat Barkataky, who won 49,210 votes or 37.47 percent of the vote share. However,  after Gogoi was elected to the Lok Sabha in the 2019 General Elections, BJP MLA Nabanita Handique had won the seat in by-elections  conducted in the constituency in 2019. In July 2020, Handique had tested positive for COVID-19. Congress’ Barkataky had won the constituency in the 2011 election. He had received 56,655 votes against the BJP candidate Anup Singh Rajpuruhit, who had received 27,751 votes. The Assam Assembly polls will be held to elect a total of 126 Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs).