E-Paper
Unwell Gogoi to go slow for phase I
The Congress will not have the advantage of chief minister Tarun Gogoi campaigning full-throttle for the April 4 phase of the polls because the party leader has been advised rest by his doctors.
The Congress will not have the advantage of chief minister Tarun Gogoi campaigning full-throttle for the April 4 phase of the polls because the party leader has been advised rest by his doctors.
The chief minister returned to Guwahati on Friday after undergoing surgery at a New Delhi hospital to replace a component of his heart’s pacemaker.
Gogoi, who will start a low-key campaign on Monday, will be missed in some measure for this phase of the elections, which covers the upper Assam districts, where the Congress is in a strong position.
The CM, who belongs to the Ahom community (the major community in upper Assam), is a highly popular leader in rural areas of the state.
The first phase covers 62 constituencies of the 126 in Assam.
In the 2006 assembly elections, the Congress had won a majority of the constituencies in upper Assam districts of Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Tinsukia and Dibrigarh district.
“Gogoi has some plans for the poll campaign,” said Bichitra Choudhury, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) spokesman and media in charge.
Till now, Himanta Biswa Sarma has been handling the Congress’s electioneering in upper Assam and Barak Valley districts. On the other hand, the BJP has got into the act in full swing. Actor Hema Malini has campaigned in upper Assam for the party, whose national president Nitin Gadkari hit the ground in Barak valley districts.
