LS polls 2024: Union Minister and BJP leader Sarbananda Sonowal may file his nomination from Dibrugarh on 26 March

Lurinjyoti Gogoi, the AJP candidate pitted against Sonowal in the seat, is also expected to file his on the same day. AAP candidate Manoj Dhanowar may file his papers on

Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Ayush, and BJP leader Sarbananda Sonowal may file his nomination for the Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat on March 26. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is likely to accompany him, sources told Northeast Live.

Lurinjyoti Gogoi, the Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP) candidate pitted against Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in the seat, is also expected to file his papers on the same day.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Manoj Dhanowar may file his nomination for the seat on March 27.

All three candidates have collected the nomination forms yesterday, officials said.

Sarbananda Sonowal is former Chief Minister of Assam (2016 to 2021) and former president of Assam BJP for 2 terms – 2012 to 2014 and again from 2015 to 2016. He was also the president of Assam’s oldest student body, the All Assam Students Union (AASU) from 1992 till 1999.

Prior to joining the BJP in 2011, Sonowal, a three-time MLA (1-time Moran MLA and 2-time Majuli MLA), was a political leader of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) born after the Assam agitation.

Sonowal won the Moran Assembly seat in 2001 on AGP ticket and stayed on as the MLA till 2004.

He won the Majuli Assembly seat in 2016 and became the CM of Assam. In 2021, he won the seat but resigned as the Majuli MLA as he was made Rajya Sabha MP and inducted into the Union Cabinet after Himanta Biswa Sarma was named the CM of Assam the same year.

This year, Sonowal has replaced incumbent party MP and Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Labour and Employment Rameswar Teli in the Dibrugarh seat. Teli had won the seat twice in 2014 and 2019.

Lurinjyoti Gogoi, the former general secretary of AASU between 2015 and 2020, is contesting the Parliamentary elections for the first time. He had contested the Assam Assembly elections in 2021 for the first time after launching AJP in 2020. He contested in the 2021 Assam assembly election from his home constituency Duliajan but lost.

AAP candidate Manoj Dhanowar too is contesting the Parliamentary elections for the first time. Manoj, son of 8-time Cong MLA from Digboi and former 2-time Assam Minister, late Rameswar Dhanowar, had contested the 2021 Assam assembly election from Lahowal Assembly seat on a Congress ticket but lost the election to BJP MLA Binod Hazarika. In 2022 he joined AAP.

The process for filing of nomination papers for the first phase of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 scheduled to be held on April 19 began yesterday but so far no candidate has filed their nominations.

The last date for filing nomination papers for first phase of polling is March 27 except in Bihar where due to a festival, the last day for filing nominations for the Lok Sabha constituencies is March 28.

Elections for 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in 7 phases that will begin from April 19 and continue till June 1. The counting vote will be held on June 4.

In Assam, elections will be held in three phases – April 19 and 26 and May 7. Five LS seats – Kaziranga, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh and Jorhat will go to polls in phase one.

Also Read: Assam: Setback for Congress, former MP Dwijen Sharma quits grand old party

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