GUWAHATI: The Congress Party high command is weighing its options whether to name a potential chief ministerial candidate in poll-bound Assam, where it would fight the elections jointly with All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).
The murmurs doing round in Congress office at 10, Janpath in New Delhi suggest that this time around the party might as well name a Chief Minister candidate shifting away from its traditional practice of not projecting a solo name for the top post ahead of the elections.
And the name doing the rounds is of the son of former chief minister Gaurav Gogoi.
However, senior state leadership is miffed with any such move of the high command and has openly aired its resentment.
Elections in Assam are nearly seven months away but the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state has pressed the accelerator announcing sops after sops targeting voters amid COVID-19 induced economic slowdown.
In 2016, Congress could manage to win only 25 seats and hardly anything has changed on the ground for the grand old party in the last four years which otherwise had ruled Assam for three consecutive terms from 2001-2016.
“We need to do something different to counter BJP’s target of `100 plus mission’ and naming a possible CM candidate well ahead of elections would be an ideal start to rejuvenate the grassroots workers,” a youth leader of Congress told G Plus.
With former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi ruling himself out of the chief ministerial race for the 2021 assembly elections the options were among far and few for the high command to find out a consensus and effective leader from the current pack of state leaders.
On the other hand, the rising popularity of Gaurav Gogoi with the Gandhis may work to his advantage if any decision is taken on projecting a potential chief ministerial candidate by the party high command.
Gogoi has been recently appointed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi as deputy leader in the Lok Sabha.
It may be mentioned here that the senior Gogoi had also made a transition from central to state politics.