Gogoi vs Gogoi in dateline Jorhat

THOUGH Assam's Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency is set to go to polls on the first phase on April 19, there is no noise on the ground.

-  PRASANTA MAZUMDAR

Poll campaign is invisible no posters and festoons in towns and rural areas.

But saffron flags are galore in urban areas, put up during the recent Ram temple consecration in Ayodhya.

The focus of parties is on this prestigious upper Assam seat ever since Congress's Gaurav Gogoi decided to contest from here. He faces MP and former student leader Topon Kumar Gogoi of BJP. Raj Kumar Duwara and Arun Chandra Handique are two independents in the fray. Barring Duwara, the rest are from the Ahom community that ruled Assam for 600 years. Sivasagar, the capital of the erstwhile Ahom kingdom, falls under Jorhat seat.

For decades, it had been a Congress bastion until BJP won it in 2014. There is a perception that the battle will be between Gaurav and BJP, not Congress versus BJP. The Assamese middle class appears to be titled in Gaurav's favour.