Jailed peasant leader Akhil Gogoi on Monday filed his nomination papers for two Assembly constituencies in Upper Assam.
The 1976-born Gogoi will contest from Mariani and Sivasagar Assembly seats, which will go to the polls in the first phase on March 27, as a candidate of the Raijor Dal of which he is the president.
Gogoi, who first hit the headlines with his peasant group Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) in 2005, has since been one of the prominent public voices espousing the cause of Assam.
Debanga Gogoi, Raijor Dal’s publicity secretary, told The Telegraph: “Our president Akhil Gogoi submitted his nomination papers through his proposers at Sivasagar and Titabor (Mariani) and himself took the mandatory oath of allegiance to the Constitution before Guwahati Medical College and Hospital superintendent A. Sharma in Guwahati.”
Debanga said a huge rally was taken out in Sivasagar and Titabor by Gogoi’s supporters around the time he submitted his nomination papers.
Gogoi soon released a six-page letter urging the masses to perform the ruling BJP’s “visarjan” and come out and “defeat” the saffron party at “any cost” in the upcoming elections.
Arrested on December 12, 2019 from Jorhat at the peak of the anti-CAA movement in Assam, Gogoi has been in judicial custody since then.
He is currently admitted to GMCH because of his health condition.
As the KMSS chief adviser, Gogoi backed the formation of Raijor Dal late last year from judicial custody, the trigger being the “imposition” of the contentious CAA on the people of Assam.
Both Raijor Dal and Assam Jatiya Parishad owe their formation to the anti-CAA sentiments.
A few days ago, he had in a letter urged the Opposition parties to field a joint candidate to defeat the ruling BJP. He had in that letter also dubbed the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) as a “communal” party just like the BJP.
Raijor Dal has fielded 20 candidates so far while its ally Assam Jatiya Parishad 68 with its president Lurinjyoti Gogoi contesting from two seats — Duliajan and Naharkatia. He too filed his nomination on Monday.
The Congress on Monday installed LED panels across all 33 districts in the state with the message that the party is coming to power and a “firm assurance” for the implementation of the party’s “five guarantees” made to the people of the state.
Placed below this message will be a countdown meter, displaying days, hours and seconds left till the poll date.
The five guarantees are a law curbing the operation of the CAA, generating five lakh government jobs; raising tea workers’ daily wage to Rs 365; providing free electricity up to 200 units per household; and Rs 2,000 monthly income support to all housewives.Assam will have a three-phase election on March 27, April 1 and April 6.
