All eyes will be on Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his challenger and state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi in the upcoming assembly polls, as the BJP aims at a hat-trick, while the grand old party seeks to oust the saffron camp from power.
Himanta Biswa Sarma : He has been the main strategist for most assembly polls since 2006. Even after joining the BJP from Congress in 2015, he was considered the architect for the saffron party's first win in the North East, followed by the victory in 2021 when he took over the chief minister's mantle.
Himanta Biswa Sarma has represented the Jalukbari constituency since 2001 and is set to retain it for the sixth consecutive term in the forthcoming polls.
He first contested this seat in 1996 but lost to late AGP leader Bhrigu Kumar Phukan by 17,000 votes. Sarma wrested the seat from him in 2001, winning by a margin of 10,000 votes.
Sarma's winning spree continued since then, and the victory margin kept increasing in each poll. He achieved a record winning margin of 1,01,000 in 2021.
Gaurav Gogoi: The deputy leader of Congress in Lok Sabha will make his first electoral foray for the legislative assembly after the party announced his candidature from the Jorhat seat and projected him as its chief ministerial nominee.
The seat has been represented by veteran politician Hitendra Nath Goswami for five terms -thrice consecutively since 1991 as AGP candidate and twice from 2016.
Gogoi's win in the Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency with a comfortable margin - despite the ruling BJP putting its entire machinery behind its party candidate in 2024 - boosted the morale of the Congress.
The Congress threw a challenge to the BJP, particularly to the chief minister, by reposing faith in him and appointed him as the state unit president, ahead of the assembly polls, despite Sarma's allegations against Gogoi and his wife of having "Pakistan links".
Apart from the two heavyweight politicians, there are leaders to watch in the upcoming assembly polls.
Debabrata Saikia: The leader of the opposition in the outgoing assembly will contest from the family stronghold of Nazira, represented by his father and late Chief Minister Hiteswar Saikia and his mother and former minister Hemoprava Saikia.
Saikia has represented the constituency since 2011 and seeks to retain it for the fourth consecutive term, though he had won the last polls by a slim margin of less than 500 votes.
Biswajit Daimary: The Speaker in the outgoing assembly has represented Panery constituency as a BJP candidate. A former Rajya Sabha member, Daimary was earlier a member of the Bodoland People's Front and served as an MLA for two terms from 2001 to 2006 and again from 2014 to 2020. He left the BPF to join the BJP in November 2020 and successfully contested the last polls.
Ripun Bora: A former Rajya Sabha member and Congress state president, Bora had represented the Gohpur assembly constituency twice in 2001 and 2006. He was also a cabinet minister in the Tarun Gogoi ministry. Bora will contest from the Barchalla assembly constituency in the ensuing polls.
Ajanta Neog: The first woman finance minister of Assam, Neog holds the record of being the longest-serving female legislator in the state for five consecutive terms since 2001, representing Golaghat constituency. She was earlier a Congress minister in Tarun Gogoi's two cabinets from 2006 and 2011. She quit the Congress and joined the BJP in 2020 and was made the finance minister in Sarma's cabinet in 2021.
Atul Bora: A minister in both the BJP governments in Assam, Bora is the president of the Asom Gana Parishad, a constituent of the NDA. He is currently the minister of agriculture, horticulture and food processing, animal husbandry and veterinary.
A former member of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) during the anti-foreigners' agitation, he represented the Golaghat constituency from 1996 to 2001 but shifted to nearby Bokakhat in 2016, from where he was elected twice. He was also a minister in the AGP government, led by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, in the 1996-2001 period.
Keshab Mahanta: A minister in both the BJP governments in Assam, Mahanta has been the working president of the AGP and has represented the Kaliabor assembly constituency since 2006.
He was also elected to the Lok Sabha as an AGP candidate in 1996 and was an MP till 1998. He is currently the minister for revenue, science and technology and information and technology departments in the Sarma cabinet.
Akhil Gogoi: He is the president of the Raijor Dal, formed in 2020 after the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). He won from Sivasagar assembly constituency as an independent candidate in the 2021 polls while he was still in jail on sedition charges for allegedly instigating violence during the protests.
Aminul Islam: Three-term AIUDF MLA, Islam was arrested on April 24 last year from his residence in Dhing following controversial remarks regarding the Pahalgam terror attack. He was granted bail, but was arrested again under the National Security Act (NSA) on May 15.
The charge was quashed by the Gauhati High Court in November, and he was subsequently released from jail. He has represented the Dhing constituency since 2011, but has been shifted to Rupahihat for the upcoming polls.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
