Kabindra Purkayastha (born 15 December 1931 [1] ) is a former union minister of state of India. He served as minister of state for communication in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government from 1998 to 1999. He is a senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam, India.
He was born in 1931 in Kamarkhal in Sylhet district now in Bangladesh and studied M.A. at Gauhati University.
He was first elected to Lok Sabha in 1991 from Silchar constituency in Assam. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 from same constituency. In 2009, he was elected to the 15th Lok Sabha, defeating heavyweight candidates Santosh Mohan Dev of INC and Badruddin Ajmal of AUDF from Silchar. But in 2014 LS-election, he has been defeated by Sushmita Dev (INC), daughter of Santosh Mohan Dev, despite the Modi-wave in his favour.
Silchar is a city and the headquarters of the Cachar district of the state of Assam, India. It is second largest city of Assam after Guwahati in terms of area, population and GDP. It is also administrative capital of Barak Valley division. It is located 343 kilometres south east of Guwahati. It was founded by Captain Thomas Fisher in 1832 when he shifted the headquarters of Cachar to Janiganj in Silchar. It earned the moniker "Island of Peace" from Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India. Silchar is the site of the world's first polo club and the first competitive polo match. In 1985, an Air India flight from Kolkata to Silchar became the world's first all-women crew flight. Silchar was a tea town and Cachar club was the meeting point for tea planters.
Santosh Mohan Dev, was an Indian political leader and a key member of the Indian National Congress. Mr. Dev was first elected to the Parliament in 1980, the first of his seven terms in office as the Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha. Out of these seven, he has represented Silchar constituency, Assam five times and he was elected from Tripura West constituency twice. Mr Dev has the rare distinction of being elected from two different states.
Karimganj is a town in the Karimganj District of the Indian state of Assam. It is the administrative headquarters of the district.
Puducherry Lok Sabha constituency covers the entire Union Territory of Puducherry. Pondicherry became a union territory after the implementation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of India in 1962 and changed its name to Puducherry in 2006. This constituency first held elections in 1967 and its first member of parliament (MP) was Thirumudi N. Sethuraman of the Indian National Congress.
Santosh Kumar Gangwar is an Indian politician currently serving as the Governor of Jharkhand. He is a former Minister of State with independent charge in the Ministry of Labour and Employment in the Government of India. He is a Member of Parliament, former minister of state in Government of India and a leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He has been Member of Parliament for the city of Bareilly since 1989 till date. He was also the chief whip of the party in 14th Lok Sabha. He faced defeat in the 15th Lok Sabha Elections, 2009 by a very narrow margin. Gangwar was the chairman of the PAC Public Accounts Committee (India) in 2009. He has been elected as Member of Parliament in 16th Lok Sabha. He won by a margin of over 2.4 lakh votes over his rival candidate in 2014 general election. He resigned from the post of cabinet minister ahead of the cabinet reshuffle in July 2021.He is currently the Chairperson of the Committee on Public Undertakings.
Lalit Mohan Suklabaidya is an Indian politician who was a Member of Parliament from Lok Sabha. He represented the Karimganj constituency in Assam from 2004 to 2014 and is a member of the Indian National Congress.
Sarbananda Sonowal is an Indian politician who serving as 9th Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways since 2024. He also the Member of the Rajya Sabha representing Assam since 2021 and also a member of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs since 2021. He is the 14th Chief Minister of Assam from 2016 to 2021 and the former of Assam Legislative Assembly from Majuli from 2016 until he resigned in 2021 and from Moran constituency from 2001 to 2004. Sonowal earlier served as the Assam state unit President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2015 to 2016. He has also served as the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Government of India, from 2014 to 2016 and the Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Skill Development from 2014 to 2014 and the member of the Lok Sabha from Lakhimpur from 2014 to 2016 and from Dibrugarh from 2004 to 2009. He was also the member of the Asom Gana Parishad from 2001 to 2011.
Silchar Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam state in north-eastern India. From 1951 to 1971, the area under it was referred as Cachar constituency. The constituency covers the entirety of Cachar district in the Barak Valley.
Gurucharan College, popularly known as GC College, recently upgraded to a State University under Assam Government, is a college imparting 10+2, undergraduate, certifications (self-financing) and postgraduate (self-financing) education under the aegis of Assam Higher Secondary Education Council, Guwahati and Assam University, Silchar.
Moinul Hoque Choudhury was an Indian politician from Assam. A five-time MLA; he was the Minister of Commerce and Industrial Development during Indira Gandhi regime in 1971. He is also known as the Industrial Reformer of the Barak Valley.
Nibaran Chandra Laskar was an Indian singer, musician, sportsman, social worker, professor and politician. He was a member of the Indian National Congress party. He was elected to the Lok Sabha lower house of the Parliament of India from the Cachar, Assam constituency in 1952 and 1957. Prof. N. C. Laskar was also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India.
Nurul Huda was an Indian politician, former Member of Parliament and former Member of the Legislative Assembly of Assam. A leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Nurul Huda belonged to the Central Committee of the party.
Sushmita Dev is an Indian politician and member of Rajya Sabha from West Bengal, and belongs to the All India Trinamool Congress. Previously, she was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Silchar, Assam in the 2014 Indian general election as a member of the Indian National Congress. She is the former president of All India Mahila Congress. She lost the 2019 Lok Sabha Election to BJP candidate Rajdeep Roy, which led her to resign from Indian National Congress and to join the All India Trinamool Congress in 2021.
Dholai Assembly constituency is one of the 126 state legislative assembly constituencies in Assam state in North Eastern India. It is also one of the 7 state legislative assembly constituencies included in the Silchar Lok Sabha constituency. This constituency is reserved for the Scheduled caste candidates.
Barkhola is one of the 126 Assembly constituencies in the North-East Indian state of Assam.
Sonai is a town in the Cachar district in the Indian state of Assam. It is also the name of a circle and block in the town. Government of Assam declared it as a municipal area on 2016 with 11 wards. The River Sonai flows through the town of Sonai joining with Barak River near Dungripar Village of Sonai. The Chandragiri Park and an Archeological site, a temple of Kachari Kingdom at Shivtilla (Changutilla) near Madhab Chandra Das College is a famous place to visit.
Karimganj North Assembly constituency is one of the 126 constituencies of the Assam Legislative Assembly.
Rashida Haque Choudhury was an Indian politician who was the Minister of State of Social Welfare in Charan Singh ministry from 1979 to 1980.
Rajdeep Roy is an Indian politician. He was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Silchar, Assam in the 2019 Indian general election as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bithika Dev is an Indian politician. She was elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly from Silchar as a member of the Indian National Congress. Her husband Santosh Mohan Dev was a Cabinet Minister of India.