Rajen Gohain, 4 Other MPs Denied Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tickets

GUWAHATI: Putting an end to all speculations and reports, the central election committee of the BJP on Tuesday named Rupak Sarma as its candidate for the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency in place of sitting MP and Union Minister of State for Railway Rajen Gohain.

Even though the hope of getting a ticket for Gohain floated on Monday after the Gauhati High Court quashed the criminal proceedings against him in an alleged sex scandal, the announcement of Rupak Sarma’s name by the central leadership on Tuesday came as a major political setback for Gohain and his supporters in Nagaon constituency. Gohain has been representing the seat since 1999. Sarma, an MLA from the Nagaon constituency is several years junior to Gohain.

With the exit of Gohain from the race for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has denied tickets to five MPs this time causing resentment and dissidence in certain quarters of the ruling party. Jolted by not seeing his name in the panel of candidates of the BJP’s central leadership, MP from Tezpur Ram Prasad Sarmah has already quit the party and decided to float a new political platform with the disgruntled and disillusioned senior BJP leaders. Labour Minister Pallav Lochan Das has replaced Sarmah to fight the elections from Tezpur.

BJP MP from Jorhat, Kamakhya Prasad Tasa has also been denied the party ticket. Power Minister Topon Kumar Gogoi has replaced Tasa to lead the BJP’s fight from Jorhat.

While Queen Ojha has replaced former Union Minister and MP from Guwahati Bijoya Chakravarty, young BJP leader Dilip Saikia will contest the polls from Mangaldoi in the place of MP Ramen Deka.

It will be interesting to see whether the BJP’s new strategy of denying tickets to some sitting MPs brings election windfall to it. But if the new faces like Topon Kumar Gogoi, Pallav Lochan Das and Rupak Sarma win the elections, there will be need of holding bye-elections since all of them are MLAs. Another Minister of the Sarbananda Sonowal Cabinet, Pramila Rani Brahma is also contesting the ensuing elections from the Kokrajhar constituency as the BPF candidate.

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