Gogoi faces stiff fight in his last poll battle

Maheshwar Bora, 70, has been an ardent supporter of the Congress and is an elder from Borholla near Assam-Nagaland border.

The area falls under the prestigious Titabar constituency from where Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has been winning since 1997, but Maheshwar for the first time on Tuesday has come to attend a BJP meeting.

“Our family has for generations voted for the Congress. Tarun Gogoi has been our MLA since 1997, yet Titabar has not seen any rapid development. Thus, I came to listen to the BJP candidate, who appears promising. Whether I will vote for him shifting my loyalty is something I need to decide,” said Maheshwar.

In the two-phased Assam polls due early next month, all eyes are on Titabar, a constituency adjacent to Jorhat, the main town in Upper Assam where excitement will take on experience, as the BJP has fielded its Jorhat MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa against Gogoi.

Local people feel that Gogoi’s last political battle would be a very tough one. “We have been supporting the chief minister but Tasa is a good candidate. We will win but he (Tasa) will give a good fight for sure,” said Babul Gogoi a Congress supporter.

Tasa surprised many by winning the Jorhat Lok Sabha seat in 2014 by defeating Congress heavyweight and former Union minister B K Handique. Tasa led the Assam Tea Tribe Students Association (ATTSA) for several years before joining the BJP in 2004.

The over 45,000 strong tea tribe voters in the constituency are expected to play a decisive role in the electoral battle.

“I come from the backward class; I have been in politics with all my honesty and dignity. People value it and will vote for me. I will emerge as the giant killer,” Tasa told Deccan Herald on the sidelines of a party rally in Titabar.

But Tarun Gogoi supporters feel that people will vote for the three-time chief minister. Gogoi has been in politics for nearly five decades and is counting on his rapport with his constituency people.

“Kamakhya is a young politician and I am happy that I am getting to fight an electoral battle against a young leader. I wish him luck. I am sure Titabar will be electing me again,” Gogoi told Deccan Herald last week in an exclusive interview.

The BJP is putting all force behind Tasa to defeat Gogoi. On Tuesday, BJP’s poll manager and former Congress minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was campaigning in Titabar urging voters not to vote for Gogoi, his once political godfather.

Thousands of people braved a thundershower to attend Sarma’s rally in Gogoi’s bastion, perhaps signalling that Gogoi, who never lost from Titabar, has a very difficult last battle.
DH News Service

EC introduces e-filing facility
For the first time, the Election Commission of India has introduced the facility to e-file the affidavits by the candidates in Tamil Nadu through on-line method, DHNS reports. The ECI on Tuesday said that this facility shall also provide on-line help in filling up the affidavit correctly and also the facility of getting print of the duly filled affidavit. Moreover, on-line submission will not accept any incomplete application, in respect of columns which are required to be filled in mandatorily and thereby ensures that no column is left blank which may lead to rejection of nomination paper. The ECI has further informed that at present, the e-filing can be done in two languages such as English and Hindi. Accordingly, there is no additional cost to the candidate for e-filing of the affidavit.