| Assam
polls fast becoming an expanding family business
Samudra Gupta
Kashyap
Guwahati, May 6:
With every passing election in Assam, an increasing number of politicians’
family members are jumping into the fray.
Take for instance the case of Pranjit, alias Romu Chaliha and Saurabh
Chaliha, trying their luck in the prestigious Sibsagar Assembly
constituency in Upper Assam. Sibsagar woke up to Romu’s existence
only after he put up posters of himself all across town.
It wasn’t very widely known till then that he was an uncle
of Saurabh. Romu was with the BJP till two weeks ago when he walked
out, protesting against his party’s alliance with the AGP.
An Independent candidate who points at his ‘bridge’ symbol
and says he will bridge the gap between Dispur (the state capital)
and the people, is also a brother of the late Parag Chaliha, a former
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MP, apart from being the AGP’s president
between 1992 an 1995.
Pitted against him, again as an Independent, is nephew Saurabh who
was expelled from the AGP a few months ago after he had a tussle
with party general secretary Pradip Hazarika. But they’re hardly
bothered about each other. It’s veteran CPI leader Pramod Gogoi
they have to unseat.
Saurabh’s brother and former Congress MP from Guwahati, Kirip
Chaliha, who had joined the AGP in 1996, only to return to the Congress
after Sonia Gandhi became party chief, had himself applied for a
Congress ticket in Barhampur against Mahanta. But the party advised
him to look after the media relations instead.
And at Barhampur, which has returned Assam chief minister Prafulla
Kumar Mahanta twice since 1991, there are more relatives trying
to defeat each other. Uma Phukan, veteran Congressman and twice
party candidate from Barhampur, entered the fray as an Independent
when the party preferred to field his dead nephew and former MLA
Ramesh Phukan’s wife Chitralata Phukan. Uma and Chitralata
are locked in a six-cornered contest where Mahanta remains the odds-on
favourite.
At Teok in Jorhat district, the wife of Congress candidate Membor
Gogoi is a sister of former chief minister Hiteswar Saikia. Saikia’s
wife Hemaprabha, however, is contesting from Nazira in Sibsagar
district, where she is comfortably placed.
At Moran in Dibrugarh district, it is Jibantara Ghatowar, wife of
former Union minister and three-time Congress MP from Dibrugarh,
who is the Congress candidate. There have been reports that she
is a dummy for her husband, who dreams of one day becoming chief
minister of the state.
Jibantara’s main opponent is Sarbananda Sonowal (AGP), a former
president of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU).
At Titabar in Jorhat district, Assam Congress chief Tarun Gogoi’s
younger brother Deep Gogoi is the Congress candidate. Initially,
Tarun, presently a Lok Sabha MP was supposed to contest Titabar,
but he opted out at the last minute and nominated his brother, who
is seen as a dummy for Tarun, who is already being projected as
the party’s choice for the post of chief minister if the Congress
comes to power.
Across the Brahmaputra at Dhakuakhona, Bharat Chandra Narah, the
Congress candidate is the husband of controversial Lok Sabha member
Ranee Narah. Bharat, who was once a prominent AASU leader, has been
twice elected to the Assembly as an AGP candidate. But he quit the
party on the eve of the 1996 elections to join the Congress.
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