Assam by polls: Why Congress ex-minister Rajib Lochan Pegu denied contesting from Majuli?
Former cabinet minister and three-time Congress legislator from Majuli Rajib Lochan Pegu has denied contesting in the by-election
- Sep 28, 2021,
- Updated Sep 28, 2021, 12:21 AM IST
By Devabrata Dutta
GUWAHATI: Former cabinet minister and three-time Congress legislator from Majuli Rajib Lochan Pegu has denied contesting in the by-election after his two consecutive losses in the last two assembly polls.
Assam to go to by-polls in its five laying vacant seats - Gossaingaon, Bhabanipur, Tamulpur, Mariani and Thowra - on October 30 and date for Majuli constituency, which has been lying vacant after MLA and former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal elected to Rajya sabha and inducted in Modi's cabinet, has not been announced for the same since Sonowal had not resigned until today.
When the Bharatiya Janata Party was yet to finalise a candidate to fulfil Sonowal's vacancy, on the other hand, Congress wanted to field Pegu again in the by-election.
Congress had given a time limit till yesterday to the candidates to put forward their names to contest in the by-polls and reportedly at least 11 applications were submitted from the Majuli constituency but any from Rajib Lochan Pegu.
On contacted by InsideNE, Rajib Lochan Pegu said, "It's not my retirement from politics or plan to join another party, at least as of now, but the decision was taken due to my two consecutive losses. To be very honest, I do not have enough funds to give a fight on my own either."
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In the last assembly election, Pegu's vote share reduce by 3.11 per cent to the earlier and lost in the election by 43,192 votes to Sonowal.
Currently, Congress has some anti-incumbency factors in the Majuli constituency after staying in power for 15 years and not serving the people of the constituency as per calibre, according to locals. Congress is in need of some organisational reformation in the constituency to win after losing two consecutive terms. Pegu on the other had resigned from his district president position after his last defeat as well.
On asked the same, Pegu said, "I will not deny but still at this moment organisational structure of Congress is in a better position than the BJP. Now the BJP as a ruling party has some advantage to announce schemes after schemes in order to win the election whether they fulfil or not. BJP won the last two terms just promising the same Majuli-Jorhat connecting bridge twice. Now before the by-poll CM again brought the old practice and promised to complete the bridge."
"BJP has anti-incumbency because they cheated people on the bridge and several other schemes, made an outsider its MLA then again took him back and now the people here have to vote again. According to me, Sonowal did not have any work culture either. Just all talk no action. Under such circumstances, if Congress chooses to back its candidate financially then there is a huge chance to get this constituency back," Pegu added.
Pegu also said that the new Cattle Preservation Act, 2021 passed by the BJP will have some adverse impacts on it as well.
"This is harvesting time. People have 10-12 cows at home and during this time it's very hard to arrange food for the cattle. Like in previous years, due to this new act, farmers are not being able to sell their cows either. They are forcefully handing over their cows at just Rs 2,000-3,000. People are very furious over the government," Pegu informed.
Pegu asserted to help Congress in the by-election even if he would not contest. However, Pegu did not decline the possibility of contesting from Majuli completely on getting financial assistance from the party.