Akhil Gogoi conquers Sibsagar; Lurinjyoti Gogoi finishes poor third

GUWAHATI: It was neither BJP, nor Congress in the tradition Congress fortress of Sibsagar. The people’s mandate was in favour of the man who voiced their concerns.

Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi, who contested as an independent, has won the Sibsagar constituency to be the lone candidate to have registered victory from several parties formed on the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act plank.

Gogoi defeated Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Surabhi Konwar.

On the other hand, Assam Jatiya Parishad president Lurinjyoti Gogoi, who has forayed in politics from being a student leader with a big promise of forming a regional parties’ government in Assam, has lost by almost 21,000 votes in Naharkatia to BJP candidate Taranga Gogoi, a close aide of party strongman Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The anti-CAA leader Akhil Gogoi who has been imprisoned since December 2019 after facing sedition charges, could not even campaign for himself throughout the election period.

Gogoi is currently going under treatment in Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.

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Though Gogoi had been quite away from media reach from time to time, he could manage to communicate with the help of letters, which caused turmoil in his party itself, when protesting against one of his letter party adviser and intellectual Hiren Gohain had resigned.

A letter prior to the Assam assembly polls had stirred up a hornet’s nest when he claimed that he was offered instant bail by National Investigation Agency (NIA) interrogators if he joins the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Gogoi had also written in that letter that he was also offered to contest Assam assembly elections from a vacant seat and became a minister which he claimed to have turned down.

Since Gogoi was in jail, his mother Priyoda Gogoi had taken the initiative and started campaigning for him which seemed to pick up momentum instantly.

In the fight for Akhil Gogoi, social activist and Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar had also joined hands and campaigned for him in Sivasagar on March 24 with Gogoi's mother which was mostly led by the student activists.

On the other hand, though AJP candidate Lurinjyoti Gogoi left no stone unturned to campaign for a victory, had to bite the dust in Naharkatia and Duliajan from where he was field from.

Both the parties were looked upon as kingmakers if not king in the Assam assembly polls, but in the end the result left them red faced, especially on high hopes of AJP.