Gaurav Gogoi Loses Bastion In Panchayat Elections: A Blow to Congress Forward of 2026 Assam Polls – News18

Final Up to date:Might 13, 2025, 19:57 IST

The Congress did not safe even a single ZP seat within the 16 constituencies underneath the Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency, a area thought-about the stronghold of the Gogoi household

The Assam Panchayat elections delivered a powerful verdict — the Congress is in bother in Assam. Furthermore, the outcomes spelt a political catastrophe for Gaurav Gogoi, Deputy Chief of the Opposition within the Parliament and the sitting Member of Parliament from Jorhat.

The Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) on Tuesday registered a landslide victory in Assam rural polls, successful 219 of the 397 Zilla Parishad seats and 901 of the two,192 Anchalik Panchayat constituencies, officers mentioned.

The Congress did not safe even a single Zilla Parishad seat within the 16 constituencies underneath the Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency, a area traditionally thought-about the stronghold of the Gogoi household. The defeat isn’t just numerical, it’s symbolic – a crack within the very basis that after held the Gogoi legacy aloft in Higher Assam.

LEGACY UNDONE

Jorhat isn’t just one other constituency. It has lengthy been the political epicentre of the Gogoi household’s affect. The late Tarun Gogoi, three-time Chief Minister of Assam and Gaurav’s father, had constructed a permanent bond with the individuals of this area. His legacy, nonetheless, seems to be faltering underneath the present management of his son.

Within the 2018 panchayat elections, the Congress had carried out comparatively properly in Jorhat, driving on residual goodwill and organisational energy. Nonetheless, the 2024 outcomes are a stark distinction – the entire defeat in Jorhat, Majuli, Charaideo, and Sibsagar paints a grim image. In Sibsagar, an Ahom-dominated district and heartland of Assamese cultural id, the Congress misplaced all 12 ZPC seats. The rejection by the Ahom group – the group Gogoi belongs to – underscores a deeper shift in political sentiment.

REGIONAL WAVE OR A LEADERSHIP CRISIS?

The rout of the Congress in these essential districts can not merely be attributed to shifting regional tides. It calls into query Gogoi’s join with the grassroots and his means to galvanise get together employees and voters alike.

“Political state of affairs adjustments yearly and this yr, issues in Jorhat have been totally different than final,” expressed Gaurav Gogoi.

CM Himanta Biswa Sarma seized the second. “If the panchayat success replicates in 2026 meeting polls, we will get 100 seats in Assam,” he proclaimed, highlighting the BJP’s inroads even in conventional minority strongholds. “The Congress has did not get help in Hindu-majority areas. The tea backyard group has expressed full help to us.”

BJP’s RISE & FALL OF THE ‘THREE GOGOI’ OPPOSITION

Union Minister Pabitra Margherita, who was particularly tasked with difficult Gogoi’s grip on Jorhat, has emerged profitable. The BJP’s resounding success on this spherical of native elections isn’t just electoral. It exhibits a celebration well-oiled, well-prepared, and deeply embedded in Assam’s rural panorama.

In the meantime, the much-hyped “Three Gogoi” opposition – Gaurav Gogoi of Congress, Akhil Gogoi of Raijor Dal, and Lurinjyoti Gogoi of Asom Jatiya Parishad – did not translate right into a political pressure. Not solely did they lose all ZPC seats of their respective constituencies, however in addition they did not current a united entrance towards the BJP juggernaut. A visibly disheartened Akhil Gogoi admitted, “We have now to confess that we might by no means come collectively as opposition to counter the BJP. In 2026, we have to act as a group and if that be so, then the Congress must take step one.”

The shortage of consensus, absence of strategic alignment, and incapacity to current a coherent imaginative and prescient have left Assam’s opposition fractured and faltering.

WARNING SIGNS FOR AIUDF AND BROADER OPPOSITION

The debacle hasn’t been restricted to Congress. AIUDF, led by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal and dominant within the minority belts of Assam, additionally noticed an underwhelming efficiency. The failure to carry floor in these areas – as soon as dependable vote banks – alerts the rising footprint of the BJP throughout all communities, together with the minorities and tea tribes.

WHAT LIES AHEAD

The panchayat elections, usually seen as a barometer of grassroots political sentiment, have given a transparent warning to the Congress. With the 2026 Assam meeting elections looming, the get together faces an uphill battle not simply towards a formidable BJP, but additionally towards inside disillusionment and management deficits.

For Gogoi, it is a defining second. The loss in his dwelling turf is an indictment of management, technique, and relevance. Whether or not he can bounce again and reassert his political stature will rely not simply on private ambition, however on his means to unify a fractured opposition and reconnect with the individuals who as soon as noticed him because the pure inheritor to Assam’s political legacy.

Location :

Assam, India, India

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