Guwahati Lok Sabha election: BJP-Congress clash as women candidates lead charge, 68.10% voting registered

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The prestigious Guwahati parliamentary constituency in the north-eastern state of Assam is yet again witnessing a major political battle between two powerful women candidates fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress.

Guwahati, associated with the largest urban centre in the Northeast section, is among the four seats in Assam going to polls in the third phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on May 7. Voting in the other 10 constituencies in the state was held in the first two phases on April 19 and April 26.

The voter turnout in Guwahati was at 68.10%.

The BJP has fielded Bijuli Kalita Medhi after dropping its sitting MP Queen Oja, while the Congress has nominated Mira Borthakur Goswami. She earlier served in the saffron party for several years but was expelled from it for ‘violating party norms’ in 2018. Since then, she has been one of the strongest critics of the BJP and is among the most visible leaders of the Congress, which she joined in 2021.

Both Goswami and Medhi are debutants, reports said.

However, this is not the first time this seat has witnessed a major contest between women candidates. Comprising 10 Assembly segments and having a total of more than 20.19 lakh electors as per the latest electoral roll, Guwahati saw BJP’s Queen Oja and Bobbeeta Sarma of the Congress pitted against each other in the 2019 elections. Back then, Oja comfortably defeated the Congress candidate by over 3.45 lakh votes.

This seat has more than 50% female voters and about 0.5% first-time voters (between 18 and 19 years of age).

Voting date

In Assam, polling for the 2024 general elections is being conducted in three phases. While 10 of the 14 parliamentary constituencies in the state voted in the first two phases on April 19 and 26, the remaining four constituencies, including Guwahati, will vote in the third phase on May 7. The counting of votes will be done on June 4.

During the 2019 elections, Guwahati saw a total voter turnout of 80.87%.

List of candidates

Eight candidates are in the fray for the Guwahati seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, however, the major contest is between the BJP and the Congress.

2019 results

Queen Oja of the BJP won the Guwahati seat in the 2019 elections and got 10,08,936 votes. She defeated Congress’ Bobbeeta Sharma, who could only manage 6,63,330 votes.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow