Who will have the last laugh in Doomdooma LAC?

A CORRESPONDENT

DOOMDOOMA: The 125 No. Doomdooma LAC, which has been a traditional Indian National Congress (INC) bastion since Independence, except once in 2011 when it went into the hands of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), is now heading for an interesting poll battle this time.

The sitting MLA Durga Bhumij (INC) is facing a tough fight from Rupesh Goala of the BJP. Rupesh Goala, general secretary of Asam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), who too was an aspirant for Congress ticket, shifted his allegiance from Congress overnight and filed his nomination as a BJP candidate. Obviously, Doomdooma being a tea-tribes majority constituency, it will be interesting to see in which side the voting pattern will swing ultimately.

On BJP's side, two of its disgruntled party members have also filed nomination. They are Lakheswar Moran, BJP district president, and Debajit Moran, another veteran party workers. On the other hand, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and Raijor Dal (RD) fielded Suresh Bhumij, an office-bearer of the Assam Tea-Tribes Students' Association (ATTSA) and Kanak Chetia as their candidates respectively. Another independent candidate, Rajesh Kishan has also filed nomination. With this, a total of seven candidates are in the fray. Interestingly, of them four are from tea-tribes community.

Both the candidates of Congress and BJP - Durga Bhumij and Rupesh Goala -took out two different processions in the town before filing of their nominations to make a show of their strength. Durga Bhumij held a press meet recently where he brought an allegation against Rupesh Goala as an 'opportunist' and as an 'agent' of the BJP for being in collusion with them in spite of being a top-ranking office bearer of ACMS, which is an INTUC affiliated trade union of the Congress party.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal sounded the poll bugle for the BJP at Koomsong TE playground near Doomdooma on Monday. Bhojpuri superstar and BJP MP Manoj Tiwari took part in a huge road show in the town on Tuesday where around 3,000 followers of the party took part.

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