Dibrugarh, Mar 14: The Lok Sabha seat of Dibrugarh, once considered a bastion of the Congress, until it slipped into the hands of the BJP in 2004 with the victory of Sarbananda Sonowal, the then AGP candidate from Congress, is now looking at the possibility of a triangular fight in this election.
Sitting BJP MP Rameswar Teli has been dropped from Dibrugarh to make room for former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Rameswar Teli is the incumbent Dibrugarh MP who won the prestigious Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat for two terms in 2014 and 2019.
This is the first time that the Congress, a dominant political force in Upper Assam, has left the seat for an alliance partner Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) that is fielding Lurin Jyoti Gogoi.
Lurin Jyoti Gogoi, who comes from the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) background has been vociferous in the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act of the BJP garnering much support from opponents of the Act.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also entered the fray fielding Manoj Dhanowar for the Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat, and the Delhi based party has already kickstarted their campaign wooing voters from the powerful tea tribe community.
Tea tribes’ have for long played a decisive role during past elections in Upper Assam given their large population and they tend to go en masse for a particular candidate or party during polls.
And that’s where Manoj Dhanowar of the AAP comes in.
Dhanowar is the only candidate, among the three heavyweights, who hails from the tea tribe community gaining considerable cloud among the population and thereby leaving the political field a complex one for the other opponents.
