GUWAHATI: The Assam Congress is eyeing the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with a new and dynamic party chief in the state where the Grand Old party is grappling with a leadership crisis.
Assam PCC president Ripun Bora sent his resignation to the party high command after the second successive poll debacle in the assembly election.
Though Bora’s resignation has not yet been accepted, party sources said they are expecting the announcement of a new PCC chief by June.
Congress insiders said that Lok Sabha MP and party ‘loyalist’ Pradyut Bordoloi is among the frontrunners for the post.
There are a few other senior Congress leaders in the race, including Debabrata Saikia, Bhupen Kumar Borah and Gaurav Gogoi.
Congress sources said the senior minister in the Himanta Biswa Sarma’s cabinet, Ajanta Neog, was another probable face.
Neog, the only woman cabinet minister in the state government, joined the BJP just before this year’s assembly polls and won from Golaghat.
“The situation seems to be favouring Bordoloi because his contenders either could not prove their acceptance in the assembly polls or are preoccupied with other responsibilities in the party,” said a senior Congress leader.
Bordoloi is also an AICC secretary in-charge of Nagaland.
While Saikia has already been made the leader of the opposition, former chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s son Gaurav is the deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.
Despite being a close aide of Rahul Gandhi and one of the most prominent young faces of the party at the national level, Gaurav is likely to continue with his work in national politics and not step into state politics.
AICC secretary Bhupen Kumar Borah, Congress in-charge of Tripura and Mizoram, has the experience of managing party affairs of the northeastern states.
But fortune may not favour him as Borah lost the assembly election in Bihpuria for the second consecutive time this year.
“Winning the Lok Sabha seat from Nagaon in 2019 was a big gain for Pradyut Bordoloi, despite BJP pulling out all stops to win the seat.
In this year’s assembly polls too, he was a key player leading the party campaign.
With an illustrious career as a student leader in Cotton College and JNU, to a cabinet minister multiple times during the Congress regime, he remains one of the most preferred choices for the top post,” a Congress source said.
Bordoloi was the campaign committee chairman of the party in the Assam election.
“New PCC chiefs are likely to be appointed soon.
The party high command has taken feedback from some of the state level leaders,” he added.
The three lobbies — one headed by Bora, the other by Saikia and another by Bordoloi — allegedly turned Congress into a divided house till a few months before the assembly polls.
Nevertheless, Congress factions fought the election together under one umbrella and took the number of the Opposition MLAs to 50 in the 126-member Assam assembly.
When contacted, Bordoloi said he will accept the new role wholeheartedly.
“I have been working with the party since my student days.
So in life there is a stage of natural progression.
I have acquired experience as an MLA, minister and MP,” Bordoloi said.