Tihu is a town with a Town Committee located in the Nalbari district of Assam. It is a new general (unreserved) Assembly constituency that was established in 2023 on the recommendations of the Delimitation Commission to redistribute voters more evenly across the state’s 126 Assembly seats. Tihu is one of the 10 segments of the Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency.
Nalbari district originally had three Assembly seats, Nalbari, Barkhetry, and Dharampur. While Nalbari and Barkhetry continued with altered boundaries and voter bases, Dharampur was abolished and replaced by Tihu. The new constituency was not a simple renaming; the Delimitation Commission redrew its boundaries by incorporating areas from neighbouring constituencies as well.
Being a new constituency, Tihu has no previous Assembly election history. The only window to gauge the mood of its voters came during the 2024 parliamentary polls. The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), contesting the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat as part of the BJP-led NDA, led the Congress party by 33,886 votes in the Tihu Assembly segment. AGP nominee Phani Bhusan Choudhury polled 89,498 votes while his Congress rival Deep Bayan received 55,612 votes. Tihu started its electoral journey on a high note with a turnout of 80.46 per cent in 2024.
Tihu had 204,770 eligible voters on its final electoral roll for the 2026 Assembly elections, witnessing a marginal increase of 839 voters from 203,931 registered voters it had in 2024.
Demographics, based on available data, largely from the 2011 Census proportions adjusted for the area and 2023 delimitation changes, indicate a mixed rural-urban electorate. As a town with a Town Committee, Tihu has a noticeable urban voter base in the municipal area, though the constituency as a whole remains predominantly rural, with the vast majority of voters living in villages and engaged in agriculture.
The Tihu constituency covers parts of the Nalbari district in Lower Assam with flat alluvial plains of the Brahmaputra Valley and gentle undulations. The terrain supports paddy cultivation and other agriculture, but is prone to seasonal flooding from tributaries of the Brahmaputra. Livelihoods in Tihu depend mainly on paddy farming, small trade, and agriculture-related activities. Infrastructure includes good road connectivity via National Highway 27 linking to nearby areas, with rail access available at nearby stations like Tihu or Pathsala, about 5-15 km away, depending on the village. Basic amenities serve the town and villages, with ongoing developments in rural roads and irrigation.
The nearest major town is Nalbari, the district headquarters, about 15-20 km away. Other nearby towns include Pathsala to the west, roughly 10-15 km away, and Rangia farther east. The state capital, Dispur/Guwahati, lies around 70-80 km east.
While Tihu is an unknown quantity, it held out big hope for the state’s ruling North East Democratic Alliance after the manner in which it voted overwhelmingly for the AGP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP is contesting the Tihu constituency under the seat-sharing agreement and has fielded Chandramohan Patowary as its nominee. The Congress party has named Ratul Patowary as its candidate. It will essentially witness a BJP versus Congress clash, though the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) has fielded Pramod Chandra Bhagbati, while there is an Independent also in the fray in Narayan Dutta Bhuyan, giving it a touch of a multi-cornered contest. If the voting trend of 2024 is any indication, the BJP goes to the 2026 Assembly elections as the favourite to win the Tihu constituency.
(Ajay Jha)
