GUWAHATI: The uncertainty over who will be the Congress’ Nagaon candidate in the Lok Sabha elections is over.
The Congress has renominated its sitting MP Pradyot Bordoloi from the seat. The party’s Kaliabor MP Gaurav Gogoi has been shifted to Jorhat. Kaliabor was rechristened as Kaziranga after the delimitation exercise of last year.
The name of Gogoi, Congress’ Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha, as the possible Nagaon candidate was doing the rounds.
Assam has 14 Lok Sabha seats and the Congress on Tuesday announced the names of its 12 candidates.
Bordoloi will face a challenge from his erstwhile party associate Suresh Bora who joined the BJP only two months ago. Gogoi will be up against Tapan Kumar Gogoi of the BJP.
The delimitation exercise had made the Congress’ challenge tougher in the two seats of Kaziranga and Barpeta.
As their demography and vote banks changed, Gogoi and Barpeta MP Abdul Khaleque sought to contest from Nagaon and Dhubri seats respectively. Khaleque said it in public, Gogoi did not. Khaleque has been denied ticket.
The Congress offered one seat to Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) while no decision has been made on one seat. Congress and AJP are components in the state’s 16-party Opposition alliance.
In the prestigious Guwahati seat, Assam Pradesh Mahila Congress chief Mira Barthakur Goswami will take on the might of BJP vice president Bijuli Kalita Medhi. Earlier, Medhi had served as the party’s state women wing chief.
The other Congress candidates are Somya Kanti Sarkar (Silchar), Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury (Karimganj), Deep Bayan (Barpeta), Joyram Engleng (Diphu), Rakibul Hussain (Dhubri), Garjan Mushahary (Kokrajhar), Madhav Rajbongshi (Darrang/Udalguri) Prem Lal Ganju (Sonitpur) and Roselina Tirkey (Kaziranga).