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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Tarun Gogoi bets on existing Congress legislators to contest Assam election
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Tarun Gogoi bets on existing Congress legislators to contest Assam election

Gogoi is set to re-contest from Titabar seat, and Congress national secretaries Rana Goswami and Bhupen Kumar Borah will contest from Jorhat and Bihpuria

A file photo of Tarun Gogoi, who is among at least 38 legislators who have been fielded in the first list of candidates. Photo: AFPPremium
A file photo of Tarun Gogoi, who is among at least 38 legislators who have been fielded in the first list of candidates. Photo: AFP

New Delhi: Facing a three-term anti-incumbency, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has decided to go with his sitting legislators in the coming assembly election. The Congress on Tuesday released the first list of 65 candidates for the first phase of the election and at least 38 of them are legislators while a few other tickets have gone to family members of the state Congress leaders.

The election in Assam is important for the Congress as it is the strongest remaining party stronghold in the country. Over the last 20 months, the party has lost power in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand. With a meagre presence in most of North and Central India, the party is pinning its hopes on the poll-bound states of Assam and Kerala.

In the first list of candidates released by the Congress party, Gogoi is set to re-contest from Titabar seat. Congress national secretaries Rana Goswami and Bhupen Kumar Borah will contest from Jorhat and Bihpuria seat, respectively.

Gogoi is among at least 38 legislators who have been fielded in the first list of candidates. The party has introduced new candidates in only some of the Congress-held seats as it feels confident about fielding its existing legislators.

“If you see, the pattern is largely that we have given tickets to sitting MLAs. Very few new faces have been fielded because we are pretty confident that our MLAs have done well and would get re-elected," a senior Congress leader from the state said requesting anonymity.

According to the leader quoted above, at least three candidates who have been given tickets are family members of senior state Congress leaders, including Bithika Dev from Silchar who is the mother of Lok Sabha member Sushmita Dev and wife of senior Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev; Pallabi Saikia Gogoi from Teok who is the daughter in law of legislator Membor Gogoi; Angkita Dutta from Amguri who is the daughter of Anjan Dutta, MLA and president of Congress’ Assam unit and Gautam Dhanowar from Digboi who is the son of MLA Rameshwar Dhanowar.

The first phase of polling in Assam is on 4 April and second phase is on 11 April. The counting will take place on 16 May.

Meanwhile, the Congress party on late Tuesday evening also released the first list of 43 candidates for West Bengal spread over all the phases.

According to a senior Congress leader from the state, this list focuses only on sitting MLAs. “31 out of the 43 names are those of our sitting MLAs. We have a meeting on Wednesday at Kolkata in which the list of candidates for more seats will be announced. This is just to put out the list of all the MLAs who we are fielding again" the leader quoted above said.

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Published: 15 Mar 2016, 10:46 PM IST
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