Accusations and allegations against each other are missing, and both Gogoi and Goswami have refrained from attacking each other while seeking votes from a predominantly politically conscious and socio-culturally elite electorate.
Gogoi, making his electoral debut in assembly polls and the Congress projecting him as the chief minister’s face, asserts in his campaign that he is like Mahabharata’s ‘Arjun’ while Goswami is ‘Bhishma’ and he has the single-minded goal of removing the “corrupt” BJP government led by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Gogoi’s winning the Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency with a comfortable margin-despite the ruling BJP putting its entire machinery behind its party candidate in 2024-boosted the morale of the Congress.
The party threw a challenge to the BJP, particularly to Sarma, by reposing faith in him and appointing him as the state unit president, ahead of the assembly polls, despite Sarma’s allegations against Gogoi and his wife of having Pakistani links.
Goswami politely counters the Jorhat MP’s assertions with, “he is our MP, people have elected him…he is a good orator, and I do not want to say anything against him.”
“He (Gogoi) has also not said anything against me…he has been an MP for three terms, but I don’t know why he has come to contest assembly polls. Besides, he should highlight the initiatives taken by him for his Parliamentary constituency in the last two years,” Goswami said.Goswami said he was grateful to the BJP leadership for giving him the ticket to contest from the same constituency for the third successive term, and he will “focus on completing some unfinished tasks during the next five years”.
He claimed that immense development work, particularly related to infrastructure and health, has taken place in his constituency under the chief minister’s initiative, and the “momentum can continue only under a BJP government”.
“I travel extensively across my constituency and try to resolve each and every problem of the people, irrespective of their political affiliations…I am the MLA of all, and as far as their issues are concerned, I am there for all,” he said.
The BJP MLA, however, refused to comment on the chief minister’s allegations against Gogoi and his wife’s alleged links with Pakistan’s spy agency ISI, saying, “I am a lawyer, and I do not want to say anything without examining the evidence”.
Gogoi’s campaign in the constituency, however, has been limited as he addresses rallies across the state for Congress candidates but asserts that Jorhat is his hometown, where people have immense goodwill toward him, his family and the party.
He has addressed a few meetings, interacted with a wide section of the electorate – particularly youth, women and senior citizens, and taken out bike rallies, among others and asserted that there is a common refrain among the people that the BJP government in the state must go and clean politics must be restored.
Gogoi has asserted on several occasions that the fight in this assembly is between the politics of “Congress led by his father, late Tarun Gogoi, and the BJP led by the chief minister”.
He also alleged that the current leadership in the state practices politics of fear and intimidation, and if anyone criticises this government, they are put in jail, and their names are deleted from schemes.
The people are seeing how “We are approaching politics, and they are remembering the politics of my father late and the way he brought Assam out of insurgency and established peace, out of financial insecurity to a stable fiscal stage, hoping for it to return again”.
“People expect us to clean up the dirty politics that have been practised for the last 6 to 7 years…give an alternative government, ensure industrial growth and a lot more. The people’s expectations will be my priorities,” he added.
Retired engineer Nilakshi Sarma, however, points out that Gogoi must clarify whether he will remain an MP or stay in the assembly in case he wins and “people have the right to know this before they take a decision on whom to vote”.
Entrepreneur Dhruba Baruah argues that there is a strong anti-incumbency factor prevalent in the constituency as the “so-called development by the BJP government is focused on certain areas with only a few roads and commercial establishments constructed to show progress, and people definitely want a change”.
A student of J B College, Manas Bordoloi, pointed out that only certain sections have received sops by the present government, and they have created a class of select beneficiaries with the majority ignored, and youth are still leaving the state for both education and employment, while non-issues are getting priority.
Jorhat, with a colonial legacy, is considered the second most important town of the state after Guwahati and has a diverse electorate of caste Assamese Hindus, Ahoms, tea garden workers, Mising tribes, indigenous Assamese Muslims, among others.
There are four candidates in the fray, with the others being AAP’s Pranab Priyankush Dutta and SUCI(C )’s Hemanta Kumar Pegu.
Elections to the 126-member Assam Assembly will be held on April 9. Votes will be counted on May 4.
