An ailing 84-year-old criss-crossing unfamiliar places and meeting unknown people to seek votes for her jailed son is a rare sight.

But then Akhil Gogoi, 45, is no ordinary candidate. He has turned the contest for Upper Assam’s Sivasagar constituency into a three-way race from the confines of his prison cell.

“My son is in jail because he was fighting for the interest of Assam and her people. It is unbearable for a mother. Please help save my son by voting for him so that he can come out of jail,” says Priyada Gogoi in her brief plea to voters in a traditional Congress bastion.

She has been campaigning from 7am till midnight for over 15 days, “overwhelmed by the love and response of strangers”, Priyada tells The Telegraph at the Raijor Dal’s buzzing rented first-floor office in the heart of the historic town.

Those familiar with the constituency’s electoral politics tell this newspaper that Akhil Gogoi’s electoral debut has added excitement to what would have been a routine contest.

“This is a new experience for us. Akhil Gogoi is in jail but is running a spirited campaign in absentia through his team against the key contenders — the Congress and the BJP. It is going to be a tight contest, the margin of victory narrow like last time,” says Sivasagar resident Debajit Gogoi.

Akhil Gogoi, a leading face of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act movement in Assam and Raijor Dal’s founder president, was arrested on December 12, 2019, from Jorhat after widespread protests turned violent. Akhil Gogoi, who believes in Marxism but is “not a Maoist”, has been in jail since then. He was jailed even under the erstwhile Congress government, but his present prison stint under the BJP-led state government is the longest.

The Raijor Dal is a regional party — and like its ally Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) — formed late last year in the wake of anti-CAA protests to “secure” the state’s interests from the threat posed by the contentious “anti-Assam” law.

Akhil Gogoi first hit the limelight with the peasant organisation Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, which he founded in 2005, and his work as an RTI activist.

Ranjit Tamuli, retired college teacher and vice-president of the Raijor Dal who is handling Akhil Gogoi’s campaign, says around 150 party members are involved in canvassing, supported by over 300 part-timers.

“We are focussing on door-to-door, small street and village-corner meetings. Our 10.6km roadshow involving activist Medha Patkar on Wednesday attracted over 15,000 people. We are focussing on three things — seeking votes to save regionalism, safeguarding Assam’s identity, culture and language and securing his (Akhil Gogoi’s) freedom,” Tamuli says.

Fighting from jail is a rarity in Assam but Akhil Gogoi’s supporters are banking on his image as a fearless activist.

“As far as I remember, eminent politician Gauri Sankar Bhattacharya, father of state minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya, had contested the Guwahati East seat from jail in the late seventies. Then there was Dilip Dhekial Phukan, a former rebel, who contested from Amguri in the nineties. Now we have Akhil Gogoi. He has been associated with public causes for over 20 years and has his own following for speaking his mind,” Tamuli says when asked what is working for Akhil Gogoi.

However, his rivals are also quite formidable. BJP candidate Surabhi Rajkumari lost by a few hundred votes to former Assembly Speaker Pranab Gogoi of the Congress in 2016. Pranab Gogoi passed away last year.

Surabhi, who has been renominated as a candidate of the ruling BJP-AGP alliance, fancies her chances because of her experience and people connect. “We are winning this time round because of our candidate and the pro-people work our government has done. Akhil Gogoi is not a factor,” says the BJP’s Amar Bora.

Then there is the Congress candidate, Subhramitra Gogoi, 41, who is making his electoral debut. He had “topped” all the seven surveys conducted by the party before he was nominated. A Goalpara Sainik School and University of Delhi alumni, Subhramitra has come through the party ranks and has been working in the field since his NSUI and Youth Congress days.

Kongkon K. Bora, a close aide of Subhramitra, says their main fight is with the ruling BJP.

“We won Sivasagar despite the Modi wave in 2016. Our candidate is a grassroots man and the Congress’s pro-people guarantee is also working on the ground. We don’t think Akhil Gogoi is a factor because he is seen as an outsider. Moreover, you don’t win elections on hype,” Bora says, adding: “The Raijor Dal claims they are out to defeat the BJP but here they are seen to be wooing voters in Congress areas.”

On Wednesday, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel led an impressive road show for the Congress candidate just after the one taken out by the Raijor Dal.

Factor or no factor, in jail or free, Akhil Gogoi continues to turn heads.