Guwahati, 24 November (HS): MP Gaurav Gogoi is facing a lot of embarrassment within the Congress over the defeat of the Congress candidate in the by-election held for the Bihali seat of Assam Assembly. It is known that Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Digant Ghatowal defeated Congress candidate Jayant Bora by 9051 votes on the Bihali seat of the state. Gaurav Gogoi had humiliated the state Congress president to provide Jayant Bora a Congress ticket. It is worth mentioning that in the last Lok Sabha elections, state Congress president Bhupen Bora and the entire Congress had put in all their strength to make Gaurav Gogoi win the Jorhat seat. Gaurav Gogoi was able to win the election after a lot of struggle by going to Jorhat from Kaliabar area. The entire alliance formed by the opposition parties of the state was working for Gaurav to win the election. But, as soon as he won the election, Gaurav Gogoi's attitude reached the seventh sky. Within a few months of winning the election, Gaurav Gogoi's real face was revealed. He humiliated state president Bhupen Bora on the issue of alliance and forced the central leadership of Congress to take a decision against the decision of the state president. Actually, money is very important in Congress politics. Gaurav Gogoi has immense wealth earned by his father Tarun Gogoi. This is the reason why Gaurav Gogoi has been achieving high positions in Congress without any experience. In the last by-election, Gaurav Gogoi openly stood against state Congress president Bhupen Bora. Despite being decided, the alliance's CPI candidate was not given Congress support on the Bihali seat. Gaurav Gogoi not only tried to establish his leadership by fielding a candidate of his choice, but during the election campaign, Gaurav Gogoi and his team put all their strength on this seat. During the by-election, it was even propagated that Gaurav Gogoi would be the next president of the state Congress and the next Chief Minister of Assam. After the election result, Gaurav Gogoi has lost his steam. Now he is having to give a false explanation. Congress leaders are blaming Gaurav Gogoi for this defeat. Not only the defeat in Bihali seat, but Gaurav Gogoi is being blamed for the defeat of Congress on all the five seats of the state. Congress leaders are trying to make the party high command understand that Gaurav Gogoi is the reason for the division of non-BJP votes. The people of the state could not be assured that the Congress candidate would be able to win the election on his own, so people did not waste their votes by giving them to Congress. However, Gaurav Gogoi has accepted the responsibility for this defeat. Still, Gaurav Gogoi is giving different types of arguments to save his image. Gaurav Gogoi is saying that this time the Congress candidate has got more votes than he had got so far in Bihali seat. Gaurav says that in every election, the Congress candidate has been losing the election on this seat by a margin of 22 to 25 thousand. But, in this election, the margin of defeat is only nine thousand. He said that he got only 25 days for election campaign. If he had got some more time, the Congress candidate could have won the election. Whatever Gaurav Gogoi may say in his defense, but after the election results, there has been a lot of criticism within his party. Meanwhile, the state Congress president is indirectly blaming Gaurav Gogoi and his late father Tarun Gogoi for the defeat in other seats of the state. Bhupen Bora, while reacting to the crushing defeat of the Congress candidate in Sidli seat of Bodoland, said that during the days of the previous Congress government, the Congress organization in Bodoland was abolished. Till date, the Congress organization in Bodoland has not been able to come into existence again. Overall, political analysts believe that after the election results, Gaurav Gogoi's campaign to become the state Congress president has been ruined for the time being.
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Hindusthan Samachar / Sriprakash