GUWAHATI: In Tarun Gogoi's death on Monday, Congress may have lost not just its guardian in Assam but also the glue that binds the anti-BJP coalition it is trying to cobble together for the assembly elections next year.
State PCC chief Ripun Bora admitted that Gogoi's demise was a blow to Congress as it aspires to regain lost glory. “We now face a big challenge— how to fill the vacuum that his death has created,” he said.
As Assam’s longest-serving CM with three consecutive terms starting 2001, Gogoi's 5,487 days in office marked an era of change and new challenges for the state as well as Congress. From rebuilding the bankrupt economy he inherited from AGP to bringing recalcitrant militant outfits to the negotiating table, his universal appeal often helped join the dots.
With Congress seemingly left rudderless in Assam, speculation is now rife about whether it would do what has been done before — look to the grieving family to provide the successor and dip into a possible sympathy wave. While senior Congress functionaries are tight-lipped on this at the moment, the former CM's son – Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi — could come into the picture soon.
Gogoi’s former finance minister Nilamani Sen Deka said, “Leaders are always elected by the people and Tarun Gogoi was the tallest of them all in Assam. His death is a huge setback as he was the face of the party in the state. We have five months going into the election and I am sure the party will find a leader.”
Now, Congress's campaign could be more about reminding people of what the party did under Gogoi's stewardship than what BJP failed to do in the past five years.