Tarun Gogoi to contest polls not as CM candidate

Guwahati, August 22: Former Assam chief minister and elderly Congress leader Tarun Gogoi is prepared to contest the next Assembly election in Assam despite his advanced age of over 85 years, but not as party’s chief ministerial candidate.

The veteran Congress leader who remained chief minister pf the state on the trot from 2001 to 2015, today clarified that he would contest the 2021 assembly elections but would not be the chief ministerial candidate.

Gogoi, a sitting MLA from Titabor LAC, also said that his son and MP, Gaurav too would not be projected as the chief ministerial candidate.

On the claim by ruling BJP minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma that the Opposition party (Congress) and its allies would be restricted to about 35 seats in the next Assembly elections, Gogoi said he would quit politics if the grand alliance proposed by the Congress failed to bag more than 35 seats.

“I have always maintained that we (grand alliance) would win at least 80 seats and form the government,” he claimed.