Spl Correspondent
NEW DELHI, March 12 – The Congress party’s list of candidates for 11 seats in Assam held no major surprises, as the party decided to bet on old warhorses, fielding only three fresh faces for the Lok Sabha polls. The party, however, held back the announcement of candidates for two seats – Lakhimpur and Dhubri – following a deadlock. The names of the candidates were expected to be announced later tonight. The list was finalised yesterday evening after an over-two-hour-long meeting of the Central Election Committee of the party headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The meeting also joined by the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and PCC president Bhubaneswar Kalita saw moments of disagreement. Interestingly, the party has renominated most of its sitting MPs, barring Guwahati MP Kirip Chaliha.
The final selection for the controversial seats was left to the Congress president. The disputes and differences of opinion between the Chief Minister and PCC president were reportedly over the Guwahati, Lakhimpur, Mangaldoi and Dhubri seats.
The party has now ended up fielding two candidates from the Koch Rajbongshi community for the first-time ever. The first list had no woman candidates and only one candidate (Barpeta seat) from the minority community. However, for the Lakhimpur seat, a woman candidate, either Ranee Narah or Bobeeta Sarma, is tipped to be nominated, while another minority candidate is likely to be fielded from Dhubri.
The Congress tried to do a fine balancing act by seeking to give representation to major communities including the minority, tea tribes, Koch Rajbongshi, among others.
The three new faces include Capt. Robin Bordoloi for Guwahati, Anil Raja for Nagaon and Ismail Hussain for the Barpeta seat. The Congress has renominated Union Heavy Industries Minister Santosh Mohan Dev (Silchar), Union Minister of State Bijoy Krishna Handique (Jorhat), Lalit Mohan Suklabaidya (Karimganj), Biren Singh Ingti (Diphu), Moni Kumar Subba (Tezpur) and Dip Gogoi (Kaliabor).
Two former MPs who lost the polls in 2004 but were re-nominated include Paban Singh Ghatowar (Dibrugarh) and Madhab Rajbongshi (Mangaldoi).
While Ghatowar’s nomination was a smooth affair, Rajbongshi had to wage a bitter battle to retain nomination for his old seat.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi backed Rajiv Sarma while PCC president Bhubaneswar Kalita backed Rajbongshi’s candidature. Finally, presence of sizeable Koch Rajbongshi community in Mangaldoi constituency and his victory in the past from the constituency and solid backing by Kalita saw him romp home.
Mangaldoi had huge competition and some bigwigs were in the fray. They included Dwijen Sarma, CK Sarma, Rajiv Sarma, among others. State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma backed Sarma.
The PCC president’s other nominee, Dr Haren Das, however, was not so lucky as the Chief Minister had his way in nominating Capt Bordoloi. Gogoi had opposed Chaliha’s candidature and ensured that he was denied the ticket.
By and large, Gogoi had reasons to be happy, as he had his way in majority of the seats including the controversial ones. His list included Anil Raja, Capt Bordoloi, Ismail Hussain, besides the candidates for the six seats, which had no dispute including his pocket burrow Kaliabor. He failed to have his way in case of Mangaldoi and Tezpur seats though.
“I am satisfied with the way the selection process has gone and the party high command has given weight to my suggestions,” Gogoi told this newspaper after the meeting of the CEC.
The prime aim of the Chief Minister is to build up a new team of loyalists in the Parliament. A few of the MPs in the old team had raised a banner of revolt against him at the Centre and had become a source of constant irritation.
Meanwhile, PCC president when contacted said that they have tried to give representation to as many communities as possible. It is normal for the Congress to filed 30-40 per cent new faces, which we have achieved,” he said.
As for fielding a representative from the Youth Congress, he said that the candidate who was in the reckoning had low chance of success. “The chance of success is the prime criterion and even in case of representatives of the youth, we evaluate the winability factor,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Congress MP from Guwahati Kirip Chaliha when contacted declined to comment on his axing. “May be tomorrow,” he said.
Meanwhile, the BJP is scheduled to announce its list of candidates for Assam on Friday, when its Central Election Committee meets. ASSAM TRIBUNE
No comments:
Post a Comment