The Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, and Ayush, as well as a prominent leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sarbananda Sonowal will officially submit his candidacy for the Dibrugarh Lok Sabha constituency. It's anticipated that he will be accompanied by Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Chief Minister of Assam. Concurrently, MP Pradan Baruah, is expected to file his nomination for the Lakhimpur seat.
Additionally, Lurinjyoti Gogoi, representing the Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP), who is contesting against Sarbananda Sonowal for the same seat, is also slated to submit his nomination on the same day. On a separate note, Manoj Dhanowar, the candidate from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is scheduled to file his nomination for the Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat on March 27.
Sarbananda Sonowal's political journey includes serving as the Chief Minister of Assam from 2016 to 2021 and holding the presidency of the Assam BJP during two terms: 2012 to 2014 and then from 2015 to 2016. Notably, he also led the All Assam Students Union (AASU) from 1992 to 1999, which is the oldest student body in Assam.
Before joining the BJP in 2011, Sonowal, a three-time MLA (representing Moran once and Majuli twice), was actively involved in the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) party, which emerged after the Assam agitation. He won the Moran Assembly seat in 2001 under the AGP banner and retained his position until 2004.
In 2016, Sonowal secured victory in the Majuli Assembly seat and subsequently assumed the role of Chief Minister. However, in 2021, he won the Majuli seat but resigned as the MLA when he was appointed as a Rajya Sabha MP and inducted into the Union Cabinet following Himanta Biswa Sarma's appointment as Chief Minister of Assam the same year.
In the upcoming elections, Sonowal is contesting for the Dibrugarh seat, replacing the incumbent party MP and Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Labour and Employment, Rameswar Teli, who had previously won the seat in 2014 and 2019.
Lurinjyoti Gogoi, the former general secretary of AASU from 2015 to 2020, is making his debut in parliamentary elections. Previously, he contested in the 2021 Assam Assembly elections after establishing AJP in 2020 but was unsuccessful. He contested from his home constituency, Duliajan, and suffered a defeat.
Similarly, AAP candidate Manoj Dhanowar is also participating in parliamentary elections for the first time. He is the son of Rameshwar Dhanowar, an eight-time Congress MLA from Digboi and former two-time Assam Minister. In the 2021 Assam Assembly elections, Manoj contested from the Lahowal Assembly seat under the Congress banner but lost to BJP MLA Binod Hazarika. He later joined AAP in 2022.
The Lok Sabha elections will be conducted in seven phases starting from April 19 to June 1, covering all 543 seats. Vote counting is scheduled for June 4. In Assam, the elections will be conducted in three phases: April 19, 26, and May 7. Five Lok Sabha seats - Kaziranga, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, and Jorhat - will go to polls in the first phase.
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