Guwahati: Gauhati Lok Sabha constituency is one of the few constituencies in the country where the Congress has nominated party candidates selected through primary method – the pilot project of Rahul Gandhi – that requires voting by select party office bearers to elect the party nominee from among all the aspirants.
So, obviously the electoral battle in Gauhati Lok Sabha seat in Assam involves the prestige of the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and credibility of his pilot project.
Manash Borah, a businessman and son of Assam’s social welfare minister Akon Bora, emerged winner in race for the party nomination for Guwahati LS constituency by polling 410 votes out of the total 823 votes cast by party office bearers in February this year. He emerged winners from among seven aspirants for party tickets.
His selection as a party candidate for Gauhati seat surprised many in the party ranks given that he was a greenhorn sans much experience in active politics and not know to have a mass support base in the constituency.
He is now facing an uphill task to wrest Gauhati seat from the BJP which has fielded its sitting MP and national vice-president Bijoya Chakraborty who was a minister in the erstwhile BJP-led NDA government.
Bijoya Chakraborty who has represented Gauhati Lok Sabha seat for two terms so far, is made to toil hard this election because of the intensive electioneering by the resourceful Congress candidate who has been aided by senior party leaders including chief minister Tarun Gogoi and of course his father Akon Bora. Senior leaders in Congress seemed very concerned about ensuring Manash Borah’s win in the election as he was virtually Rahul Gandhi’s choice.
The electoral arithmetic for both the BJP and the Congress in respect of Gauhati Lok Sabha seat has been made complicated by the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) by fielding a formidable candidate , Birendra Prasad Baishya, a former Union minister.
Baishya’s presence in the fray has made the BJP rethink on its election strategy as the AGP candidate is threatening to eat into the BJP’s vote base and that is puts the Congress candidate in an advantage.
The Congress candidate has also benefitted from the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF)’s decision to field a comparatively weak candidate, Gopi Nath Das.
This may induce the sizeable Muslim voters in the constituency to vote for the Congress to defeat the BJP which is hoping to ride Modi wave to the Parliament.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi while dismissing the massive presence of people in Narendra Modi’s rally in Guwahati , has stated that there was no Modi wave in Guwahati but only waves of Brahmaputra River.
Gogoi also criticized on the BJP candidate Bijoya Chakraborty saying that during her 10-year-tenure as the MP of Gauhati Lok Sabha constituency she had failed to utilise even her MP Local Area Development Fund (MPLAD) properly besides failing to raise questions for the cause of the Assam in the Parliament.
On the other hand the BJP candidate veteran Bijoya Chakraborty maintains that voters of Gauhati constituency were matured enough to choice the most experienced one from among the candidates.
Though the AGP candidate Baishya is gaining popularity among the voters in certain parts of the constituency, the lack of credibility of the AGP as a political party in Assam would work against his attempt to convert the increasing presence of people in his election meetings to votes on the polling day.
There are total eighteen candidates are in the fray in Gauhati Lok Sabha constituency having over 18.80 lakh voters. The election will be held in the constituency on April 24 along with five other constituencies in Assam.