Bihpuria, a general category Assembly constituency established in 1951, is one of the long-standing seats in Assam’s legislative Assembly. Located in the Lakhimpur district, it is one of the nine segments of the Sonitpur Lok Sabha constituency. The seat covers a mix of villages, tea garden belts and small market centres, which together form a diverse electorate. Over the years, Bihpuria has witnessed strong voter participation and a shifting political contest between the Congress, AGP and more recently the BJP, making it a stronghold constituency of the BJP in Upper Assam. Earlier, it was a part of the Tezpur Lok Sabha seat, which has been dissolved now.
Bihpuria Assembly constituency is composed of the Bihpuria municipal board, Narayanpur municipal board, along with parts of Bihpuria, Karunaban and Narayanpur development blocks.
Bihpuria has witnessed 15 Assembly elections since its inception. The Congress has won the seat seven times, including victories in the first three elections held between 1952 and 1962. Independents won the seat five times, four of which were won by Premadhar Bora. The AGP won the seat once, while the BJP has registered two back-to-back victories since 2016.
Bhupen Kumar Borah of the Congress party retained the seat in 2011, defeating Kesharam Bora of the AGP by 12,156 votes. Bhupen had won the seat for the Congress party in 2006, also by defeating the same rival by a narrow margin of 593 votes. The BJP, which languished in a poor fourth place in 2011, raced past all parties to win the seat in 2016 with Debananda Hazarika as its candidate. He defeated the sitting Congress MLA Bhupen Boraj by 26,187 votes. BJP retained the seat in 2021 with Amiya Kumar Bhuyan as its nominee. Bhuyan defeated Congress’s Bhupen Borah by 10,178 votes.
The BJP’s growing footprint in the Bihpuria Assembly segment is reflected in the Lok Sabha polls held here as well. AGP led the Congress party by 8,287 votes in 2009. The BJP raced from behind to establish a lead of 9,048 votes over the Congress party in 2014, and has since maintained its top position in all subsequent Lok Sabha polls. It led Congress again in 2019 by 10,178 votes and maintained its lead over Congress in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Bihpuria has 166,640 eligible voters following the release of the final roll on February 10, 2026. The constituency has not been affected by either the 2025 SIR or the 2023 exercise that witnessed the deletion of a large number of voters across the state. The constituency has witnessed a steady growth in the number of voters, which stood at 163,470 in 2024, 150,188 in 2021, 144,211 in 2019, 131,665 in 2016 and 120,914 in 2011.
Scheduled Tribes are the most dominant bloc in Bihpuria constituency with 23.42 per cent of voters, compared to 8.75 per cent of the Scheduled Caste electorate. Muslims have a minuscule presence in this predominantly rural constituency. 90.50 per cent of its voters live in villages, while 9.50 per cent reside in urban pockets. The voter turnout has remained high and healthy with 76.72 per cent in 2011, 83.31 per cent in 2016, 73.72 per cent in 2019 and 79.82 per cent in 2021.
Bihpuria town, the headquarters of Bihpuria subdivision in Lakhimpur district, lies in Upper Assam near the foothills of Arunachal Pradesh. The area features flat, fertile plains of the Brahmaputra valley, with low-lying terrain prone to seasonal flooding. The Subansiri River flows nearby to the east, with tributaries like Dikrong and others supporting agriculture. The economy revolves around paddy farming, tea gardens, fisheries and small trade. Infrastructure includes road connectivity via National Highway 15 passing through the town, linking to major hubs. Rail access is available at nearby stations like Bihpuria or Narayanpur on the Northeast Frontier Railway network. Nearby towns include North Lakhimpur (district headquarters, about 38 km north), Narayanpur (about 20 km north), Lakhimpur town (about 40 km), Tezpur (about 130 km south) and Gohpur (further south). The state capital, Dispur/Guwahati, is around 380 km southwest.
Stakes are heavily loaded in favour of the BJP after its unchallenged surge to the top since 2014. Since then, it has led in three parliamentary polls and won two Assembly elections. The Congress party, the only viable challenger to the BJP in Bihpuria, will have to perform an extraordinary act to snatch the Bihpuria constituency from the BJP in the 2026 Assembly elections.
(Ajay Jha)
