Voting for 5 Lok Sabha seats in Assam underway, 35 candidates in fray

Voting has begun at 7 am in 10,001 polling booths across Assam.

Voting for 5 seats in Assam in the first phase of the 18th Lok Sabha elections is underway.

The 5 Parliamentary constituencies where voting is underway are– Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur and Kaziranga.

Voting has begun at 7 am in 10,001 polling booths across Assam. 

Over 8.647 million people, comprising 4.364 million women who outnumber 4.282 million men and 123 third gender will decide the fate of 35 candidates in the fray.

Of the 5 seats, Jorhat and the Dibrugarh seat are witnessing a tough fight.

Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Ayush, and BJP leader Sarbananda Sonowal is contesting against the Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP) candidate Lurinjyoti Gogoi and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Manoj Dhanowar in the Dibrugarh seat.

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.

Jorhat Lok Sabha seat is witnessing a fight between 2-time Kaliabor MP Gaurav Gogoi, son of 3-time former Assam CM Tarun Gogoi, and incumbent Jorhat MP and one time Sonari MLA Topon Kumar Gogoi of BJP.

Topon Gogoi won the seat in 2019 LS polls. He is contesting for a second term. Gaurav Gogoi who is the MP from Kaliabor, would be contesting from Jorhat for the first time because his constituency, Kaliabor is now part of the Kaziranga Lok Sabha constituency post the delimitation exercise.

Worth mentioning that Tarun Gogoi (Gaurav’s father) had won the seat twice in 1971 and 1977 as a Congress candidate.

Here is the full list of constituency-wise candidates in the fray:
Jorhat Lok Sabha seat:

1. Former MP and Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi
2. Tapon Kumar Gogoi of BJP
3. Raj Kumar Duwara (Independent)
4. Arun Chandra Handique of Ekam Sanatan Bharat Dal
   Kaziranga Lok Sabha seat:
5. Kamakhya Prasad Tasa of BJP
6. Roselina Trikey of Congress
7. Salim Ahmed of Asom Jana Morcha
8. Saleh Ahmed Mazumdar of the Republican Party of India (Athawale)
9. Anim Dekha Gupta of Voters Party International
10. Tridiv Jyoti Bhuyan (Independent)
11. Jyotishka Ranjan Goswami (Independent)
12. Abdul Hoque (Independent)
13. Diluwara Begum Chowdhury (Independent)
14. Binod Gogoi (Independent)
15. Sailen Ch Malakar of Bharatiya Gana Parishad
    Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat:
16. Union Minister and former Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal
17. Lurinjyoti Gogoi of Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP)
18. Manoj Dhanowar of AAP

Sonitpur Lok Sabha seat:

1. Rinku Roy of Gana Suraksha Party (GSP)
2. Alam Ali of Bahujan Maha Party
3. Raju Deuri of Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF)
4. Ranjit Dutta of BJP
5. Rishiraj Kaundiniya of AAP
6. Kamaleswar Swargiary of Voters Party International
7. Pradip Bhandari (Independent)
8. Premlaj Ganju of Congress
   Lakhimpur Lok Sabha seat:
9. Pradhan Baruah of BJP
10. Dhiren Kachari of Communist Party of India
11. Bikram Ramchiary (Independent)
12. Deba Nath Pait (Independent)
13. Gobin Biswakarma (Independent)
14. Uday Shankar Hazarika (Independent)
15. Biren Bailung of Voters Party International
16. Ghana Kanta Chutiya of Congress
17. Pallab Pegu of Socialist Unity Centre Of India (Communist)

The results will be declared on June 4.

Also Read: Polling for 15 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Northeast underway, 96 candidates in fray

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