For Assam’s prestigious Guwahati lok Sabha seat, it will be a fight between experience and exuberance.
While BJP veteran and former Union Minister Bijoya Chakraborty will contest the seat on a BJP ticket, young and energetic youth leader Manas Bora has been nominated by the Congress as its candidate for the lok Sabha seat.
The Guwahati lok Sabha seat which includes 10 Assembly segments — Jalukbari, Dispur, Guwahati East, Guwahati West, Boko, Chaigaon, Hajo, Borkhetri, Palasbari and Dudhnoi — in three districts is the most prestigious constituency in the State. So prestigious that BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi have already addressed rallies to woo the voters here.
While 75-year-old Bijoya Chakraborty is a seasoned politician, son to Assam’s Social Welfare Minister Akon Bora, 32-year-old Manas is a debutant in politics. Manas secured the ticket through the primary initiated by AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Chakraborty had worked with the Janata Party and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and she was also a Rajya Sabha member for the AGP from 1986 to 1992. later she joined the BJP after differences of opinion with the leadership and she was appointed as the Union Minister of State in 1999 when the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance Government came to power.
In the 2004 polls, the BJP had fielded legendary singer-composer Hazarika in her place despite protests by the party workers. But the move boomeranged on the party as Hazarika had to bite the dust. Realising that folly, the party re-nominated Bijoya in the 2009 polls which she won.
“This time it is going to be a contest between a ‘grandmother’ and a ‘grandson’,” said Rajesh Bora, a citizen of Guwahati while referring to Chakraborty and Bora.
“The voters would reject Aaita (grandmother in Assamese) as they have lost all their faith in her for doing nothing for the constituency. She had been a Union Minister but we have not seen much development of Guwahati yet, not to talk of other areas under the constituency,” said Manas Bora.
Chakraborty, however, expressed her strongest confidence in retaining the seat and said that the winning margin will increase by many votes this time especially due to the nationwide wave in favour of the BJP under the leadership of its prime ministrial candidate Narendra Modi.
Apart from Chakraborty and Manas, AGP has decided to field former Union Minister Birendra Prasad Baishya in the constituency. While the Aam Aadmi Party has fielded its State president Pranjal Bordoloi in the seat, the Trinamool Congress has decided to field Assamese actor Biju Phookan in the seat.The All India United Democratic Front Ajmal will field party legislator Gopinath Das in the seat.