Assam Assembly Elections: It’s Gaurav Vs Himanta As Congress Bets Big On Tarun Gogoi’s Legacy

Dispur, March 4: The coming Assam assembly elections are set to witness a Gaurav Gogoi versus CM Himanta Sarma fight after the Congress fielded its state unit chief from Jorhat.

The highlight of Congress’s first list of 42 candidates for the upcoming Assam assembly contest, before the Election Commission announced the poll dates, is Gogoi’s candidature from the constituency where he will cross swords with none other than Assam Chief Minister Sarma.

All 126 assembly seats in Assam will go to the polls in April, and an announcement by the EC is likely in the first week. The opposition party’s decision to field Gaurav Gogoi, the Lok Sabha MP from Jorhat, and the son of three-term former Chief Minister late Tarun Gogoi, in the coming assembly contest showed the Congress’s desperation to throw a challenge to Sarma.

Since the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, appointed Gaurav Gogoi as the new state unit chief last year to steer the Congress in the northeastern state, CM Sarma has been regularly attacking the Jorhat MP.

Gaurav, who was dubbed as an agent of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI by Sarma, has often hit back, alleging the chief minister of his ‘involvement’ in large-scale corruption. According to Gogoi, Sarma became nervous as he had sensed his defeat in the coming assembly elections.

The Gaurav-Sarma rivalry is not new. In fact, it goes back to the times when Sarma, a minister in the cabinet of CM Tarun Gogoi, had decided to ditch the Congress and join the BJP along with a group of MLAs in 2015.

The Congress lost the 2016 Assam elections, and Sarma played a key role in the BJP’s win, but still could not become the chief minister. The saffron party named a tribal leader, Sarbananda Sonowal, for the top job. Sarma continued to serve the BJP and ensured the saffron party’s second consecutive win in the 2021 elections, and thereafter, he was made the Chief Minister.

The Congress, which was in power led by Tarun Gogoi for 15 years, weakened after its poll losses in 2016 and again in 2021 as several party leaders and lawmakers left to join the BJP. The credit primarily goes to Sarma.

The latest to ditch Congress was former state unit chief Bhupen Borah, who was replaced by Gaurav Gogoi last year and had been nursing a grudge since.

Meanwhile, former MP Ripun Bora, who had left the Congress to join the TMC in Assam, returned to the grand old party. Bora will now contest the coming elections from Barchalla seat while Congress Legislative Party chief Debabrata Saikia will fight from the Nazira seat.

By fielding its top state leaders in the assembly polls, the Congress is presenting itself as a serious challenger to the NDA, although the coming contest is going to be an uphill task for the grand old party, which had won only 29 of 126 seats in 2021.