Guwahati: There is no major surprise on the selection of candidates of the ruling Congress in the state for Lok Sabha elections except the fact that party vice president Rahul Gandhi’s assertion of giving preference to the young candidates has been partially adhered in selection of panel of candidates by the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee.
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s son Gaurav Gogoi seemed to get a cakewalk as the state poll committee has forwarded only his name from the Kaliabor constituency to central screening committee which will take the final decision on January 29.
The ruling Congress in Assam has decided on the candidature for Lok Sabha elections in four seats and for the rest of 9 seats referred multiple names to the central screening committee.
The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC)’s election committee members, on Monday, finalised the candidates for the four constituencies. The selected candidates were Paban Singh Ghatowar (Dibrugarh), Gaurav Gogoi (Kaliabor), Lalit Mohan Suklyabaidya (Karimganj), Ranee Narah (Lakhimpur). The party will not field any candidate in Kokrajhar. In the remaining nine constituencies, the APCC election committee forwarded panel of names ranging from three to four.
In four constituencies –Tezpur, Mongoldoi, Nowgaon and Silchar– the APCC has given preference to young candidates. From Silchar names of Sushmita Dev, Debojit Saha, Rajib Goala and Anjan Dutta Mazumdar have been kept in the panel. From Nowgon names of Sarifa Begum, Anil Raja have been forwarded to the central committee whereas from Mongoldoi constituency Pranjit Choudhry, Praduyt Bora, Dipankar Sohoria have been shortlisted.
From Tezpur Bhupen Bora, Ripun Bora and Amiyo Kumar Bhuyan have been forwarded.From Diphu constituency names of Biren Singh Engti, Mansingh Rongpi have been finalized. From Barpeta constituency Abdul Khalek and Ismail Hussain have been shortlisted. APCC received report from the party observer who were sent to different constituencies to collect feedback on the candidates.
The candidate for Guwahati constituency will be decided after inner-party poll which will be carried out by AICC.
