GUWAHATI, Sept 16: Raijor Dal on Thursday nominated former Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) general secretary, Dhaijya Konwar as the party’s candidate for the Thowra constituency in the forthcoming Assembly by-election.
“Dhaijya Konwar will be our party’s candidate for the Thowra by-poll. A former general secretary of KMSS (from 2017 to 2021), Konwar had practised law before relinquishing his profession to join KMSS,” Raijor Dal president and Sibsagar MLA, Akhil Gogoi said while addressing mediapersons on Thursday.
The bypolls will also be held in five other constituencies – Gossaigaon, Tamulpur, Bhawanipur, Mariani and Majuli.
Gogoi further said that Konwar was arrested during the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act movement in the state in 2019 and kept behind bars for seven months.
The Thowra seat in Sivasagar district of Upper Assam fell vacant after the resignation of former Congress MLA Sushanta Borgohain who joined BJP on August 1, citing “political crisis in the state unit Assam PCC”.
Borgohain had defeated BJP candidate Kushal Duwori to win the Thowra seat for the second time in the Assembly polls earlier this year.
The Raijor Dal chief slammed Borgohain for joining the ruling party, “betraying” the trust of the electorate on the former Congress leader.
“We had supported him in the Assembly elections. But he joined the ruling party for his own benefit, betraying the trust of the people of Thowra who voted for him,” Gogoi claimed.
“However, if we unite with Congress now, then the Opposition parties will certainly bag four out of the six seats in the upcoming by-polls. We want a common candidate in the other five by-poll seats,” he said, while adding that the candidate for Thowra has been announced promptly given the limited funds with which the regional party has to contest the polls.
Gogoi had on Wednesday informed about a proposal sent by the party to the Assam Congress to leave at least one seat out of the six Assembly constituencies going to the bypolls.
