When Congress candidate Pran Kurmi walked with a framed photograph of a beaming Tarun Gogoi, Assam’s late chief minister, to file his nomination papers from the Titabar Assembly constituency last month, it was not without reason.
When Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi dubbed the April 9 polls a contest between a Congress based on his father Tarun Gogoi’s principles and the “Congress led by chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma within the ruling BJP", it was also not without reason.
Crisscrossing Titabar, Mariani and Jorhat in poll-bound Assam, it becomes clear why Tarun Gogoi is being invoked so frequently and fondly during the Congress’s campaign — the idea is to send a message of building an inclusive and developed Bor (greater) Assam.
Both Nasir Ali (name changed), who runs a roadside tea stall in Titabar, and Hemanta Bakti, a tea garden worker from the same constituency represented by Tarun Gogoi from 2001 till his death on November 23, 2020, due to Covid-induced complications, told this newspaper in separate conversations why the late Congress stalwart still matters. So did many others.
“The 15 years under (Tarun) Gogoi Sir were peaceful and development-oriented for Titabar and Assam. He had a strong connect with his constituency — always smiling and helpful,” Ali said.
Echoing him, Bakti said: “He was inclusive. He did a lot for Titabar and the state. Connectivity improved, and so did the health and education sectors.”
With the electoral battle getting tight in Titabar, a Congress stronghold, as sitting first-time MLA Bhaskar Jyoti Barauah is contesting as an Independent after being denied a ticket, the principal Opposition party is playing up the past — Tarun Gogoi — and the future — firebrand speaker Gaurav Gogoi — to make an impact in Upper Assam, party insiders said.
Titabar is witnessing a three-cornered contest between Baruah and debutants Kurmi and BJP’s Dhiraj Gowala. The contest in Jorhat, where the party has fielded Gaurav Gogoi against sitting MLA Hitendra Nath Goswami of the BJP, also appears too close to call.
Congress workers said that though the party set-up in the state had suffered because of largescale defections to the BJP since 2015, it still poses a formidable challenge to the ruling alliance, which has been in power in Assam since 2016.
“The Congress remains a challenge to the BJP in Upper and Lower Assam because of the Tarun Gogoi-Gaurav Gogoi factor. People want peace and development, not a reign of fear and polarisation,” said Sakir Ali, a Congress activist who is actively campaigning to mobilise support for debutant Raijor Dal candidate Gyanashree Bora against the deeply entrenched Rupjyoti Kurmi, a five-time MLA from Mariani.
Rupjyoti defected to the BJP from the Congress in 2021, leaving the Opposition party depleted. His mother, Rupam, was the Congress’s Mariani MLA for three terms from 1991.
While campaigning, Gaurav Gogoi frequently flags the fact that “there is no BJP in Assam” and that the ruling party is primarily “a group of former Congress leaders led by Sarma”. There has been an exodus of Congress leaders to the BJP since 2015, the year Sarma joined the BJP from the Congress. Those to join just before the polls include former PCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah and sitting Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi.
“We hope to secure at least 30 per cent of our votes in (Tarun) Gogoi Sir’s name because of his contributions as chief minister and his goodwill. Widely seen as the leader of the future, Gaurav Gogoi has the additional advantage of being Tarun Gogoi’s son,” Sakir Ali said.
Hailing from the influential Ahom community, Tarun Gogoi had a stellar political career, holding significant positions in the party and the government both at the Centre and in the state.
Born in 1936 at the Rangajan Tea Estate under the Titabar constituency in Jorhat district, Tarun Gogoi remains the state’s longest-serving chief minister. He made his electoral debut as a ward member of the Jorhat municipality in 1968 and was a Lok Sabha member for six terms from 1971 till 2001 from Jorhat and then Kaliabor.
Tarun Gogoi played an instrumental role in ensuring the return of the Congress to power in 2001 when the state was passing through insurgency-induced turmoil. The BJP-led Centre conferred him with the Padma Bhushan — India’s third-highest civilian honour — for his distinguished service to the public, a testimony to his contributions.
It is for this reason that Gaurav Gogoi has been invoking his late father’s legacy — and so is Pran Kurmi — to establish an instant connection with the voters. They pay their obeisance to Gogoi Senior and recall his contributions while campaigning.
At his poll meetings, Pran never forgets to mention Titabar as Tarun Gogoi’s home constituency, and credits whatever an “ordinary person” like him has achieved to the veteran leader’s blessings. “Therefore, I request you to elect me so that I can strengthen the hands of Gaurav Gogoi, the son of Gogoi Sir, and who like him, will ensure a strong and peaceful Assam as chief minister,” Pran said, blending the past and the future to make an impact on the voters.
On Tarun Gogoi becoming a factor in these polls, Gaurav Gogoi told The Telegraph: “I sensed during the Lok Sabha elections two years ago that people in this part of Assam remember him very fondly and for them he is a strong moral figure, a father figure and a guardian. Also, people can see the huge difference between his tenure and the current tenure (under Sarma).”
He said people were now being “punished” for speaking against the government and being “cut off” from welfare schemes just for voicing their political opinions. The political discourse has also become “so coarse and ugly and vulgar today”, Gaurav Gogoi said, adding this was not the case during Tarun Gogoi’s tenure.
“The people sitting at the top of the government use such filthy language that even veterans within their own party feel sidelined and rejected. Politics was very different during Tarun Gogoiji’s time. The society was much more united and that is why people remember him with greater fondness today,” Gaurav Gogoi said.
Will the Congress’s reliance on the Tarun Gogoi factor pay electoral dividends?
Mariani-based Horen Goowala, the first college principal from the tea community in the state, feels Tarun Gogoi is “a brand” and will have an impact on the polls, “but to what extent will remain to be seen” against a formidable BJP-led alliance.
- Assam votes on April 9
