Gaurav Gogoi Likely To Contest Assam Assembly Polls From Jorhat
Congress considers name of sitting MPs also for candidature
Guwahati: Assam Congress chief and MP Gaurav Gogoi may contest the forthcoming assembly elections in the state from Jorhat constituency.
Informing that the Congress Central Election Committee has finalised candidates for around 40 seats, sources in the Congress party said the first list of candidates of the party will be released once the Election Commission announces the poll schedule.
Mr Gogoi currently represents the prestigious Jorhat Lok Sabha seat in Parliament and also serves as the president of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee. In the 2023 general elections, he secured a decisive victory over BJP’s Topon Kumar Gogoi, winning by a margin of over 1.44 lakh votes.
Mr Gogoi who is also deputy leader of opposition in the parliament has served on several parliamentary committees, including the Standing Committee on Railways and consultative panels related to communications and information technology.
Indicating that most of the sitting MLAs would get the nomination, sources sajd that the Central Election committee of the AICC also reviewed feedback from the state unit and screening committee before clearing the names.
Pointing out that the candidature of the Nagaon Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi and Dhubri MP Rakibul Hussain also came up during the meeting, sources said that central leadership of the party has also taken note of ongoing opposition by the party workers on issue of sharing some of the key constituencies with its alliance partners.
The CEC meeting also discussed candidates for the newly created Binnakandi and Khowang assembly seats. While the party was reportedly considering allotting these constituencies to its allies, the move has led to discontent among sections of party workers.
While the Congress is expected to contest around 100 seats, negotiations with allies are still going on. It is significant that the ongoing discussion over seat-sharing with alliance partners has triggered unrest within the party’s state unit. On Thursday, party workers protested against the proposal to leave the Sarupathar and Bhawanipur-Sorbhog seats to the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and the CPM, respectively.
In Golaghat, Assam state unit president Gaurav Gogoi was also gheraoed by party workers who opposed vacating the Sarupathar seat for an ally.
Sources said that the central election committee and central leadership of the party was keeping a close watch over the sentiment of the grassroots worker and indicated that party has decided to accommodate their views while finalising the seats.
