Assam: Tarun Gogoi fails to weave magic to bring Congress back to power

Guwahati: Battling anti-incumbency and age, Tarun Gogoi failed to weave his magic to bring Congress back to power after creating history earlier with a hat trick in the last elections.

With once-favourite party colleagues turning bitter foes, the 80-year-old party veteran waged a lonely battle but could not stem the tide against the Congress.

Credited with bringing the dreaded ULFA to the negotiating table, hauling out Assam from the brink of bankruptcy and putting it back on the track of development and progress, 80-year-old Gogoi's third term in office was marked by dissidence led by his former blue-eyed boy and powerful politician Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Sarma, who was nursing hope to become the state Chief Minister, led a revolt along with a section of Congress MLAs after the last Lok Sabha polls in 2014 but Gogoi, who enjoys the confidence of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, continued in office by effecting a reshuffle in the ministry.

Sarma resigned as minister, from the party and also from the assembly before joining the BJP taking along nine MLAs close to him, who were later disqualified as MLAs and this dealt a major blow to both Gogoi and the Congress which hurt the prospects in the assembly polls considerably.

The Congress ally in the second and third term-the Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF)-- also left the alliance in the later half of the third term affecting the ruling party’s prospects in the Bodo dominated areas and Gogoi ensured an alliance with the United Peoples' Party (UPP), which  is opposed to the BPF, in the just concluded assembly polls.

Notwithstanding the genial smile and a straight-forward approach, Gogoi, who has also served as an Union Minister twice and a six term Lok Sabha MP from the state, possesses a keen political acumen and comes across as a visionary who means business while taking steps for the development of Assam.

The highlight of Gogoi's 15-year rule was bringing several militant outfits of the state, including the banned ULFA, to the negotiating table, ensuring financial stability of the state government and turning around the state's economy by implementation of various schemes, particularly in the rural areas.

Barring sporadic incidents of violence mostly by the NDFB(S) and the Bodo-Muslim conflict in BTAD areas, Gogoi’s third term in office witnessed a relatively violence-free tenure with the Chief Minister claiming that a much improved law and order situation in the state was his single most achievement of his three terms in office.

Gogoi took over the reins of the government for the first time on May 17, 2001 from the then ruling Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and was faced with the onerous task of bringing the state out of the morass of militant violence and financial instability characterised by a huge debt burden with even government employees not receiving their salaries on time.

Gogoi's initiative in this direction paid dividends with the Congress returning to power for the second consecutive term, albeit with lesser seats, and formed the government in alliance with its coalition partner Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF).

Gogoi's second term as Chief Minister was a mix of high and low with the multi-crore North Cachar Hills fund diversion scheme creating embarrassment but he successfully countered it by bringing several militant organisations like the ULFA, NDFB (Pro-talk group), DHD, UPDS and others to the negotiating table.

Plagued by ill-health during the last year of his second term, Gogoi underwent three complicated heart surgeries—a bypass, aortic valve replacement and enlargement of the aorta procedure--  at Mumbai's Asian Heart Institute. He again underwent a surgery for replacing his pace maker just a few weeks before campaign began for the assembly polls in 2011.

In both cases, he recovered fast and took over charge of both office and election campaign with renewed vigour.

During this year's assembly polls, however, Gogoi led from the front addressing the highest number of public rallies and meetings without giving an inkling about his ill-health or advancing age despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi harping on several occasions on him being "too old who must go".

Enjoying the confidence of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Gogoi's journey to the state's top post was steady and scripted with patience and perseverance

Born in the sylvan surroundings of the Rangajan Tea Estate to a tea garden doctor Kamleswar Gogoi and his wife Usha Gogoi on April 1, 1936, in Upper Assam's Jorhat district, Gogoi, called 'Punakon' fondly by his parents, had an idyllic childhood playing in the sprawling tea garden with his siblings and children of the garden labourers.

Gogoi's penchant for politics took roots early in life and though his father had wanted him to study medicine or engineering, he had set his heart on politics, even once announcing to one of his teachers that he wanted to become a Prime Minister when he grows up.

Highly impressed and motivated by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who visited Jorhat in 1952, Gogoi, then studying in Class X, began participating in various political activities and much to the annoyance of his father and teachers failed to clear his High School Leaving examinations that year. He managed to appease them when he cleared it next year as a private candidate.

After leaving school, he joined the Jagannath Barooah College where he plunged into students' politics and after his graduation, joined the Allahabad University to pursue a law degree. He, however, fell ill and returned to Assam getting his law degree from Gauhati University.

Gogoi, an active leader of the Assam unit of Bharat Yuvak Samaj, joined the Congress in 1963 and since then has been a party loyalist to the core ardently supporting both Indira Gandhi, her son Rajiv Gandhi and now Sonia Gandhi. He also served the party as an AICC General Secretary and Joint Secretary in 1980s, besides heading the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee from 1986-90 and again from 1996 to 2001.

His foray into electoral political office began with his election as a member of the Jorhat Municipal Board in 1968 and in 1971 he was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time from the Jorhat Parliamentary constituency.

Gogoi was member of the fifth, sixth, seven, ten, twelve and thirteenth Lok Sabha and was the Union Minister of Food Processing with independent charge from 1991 to 1995.

Gogoi also served as member in several committees including the Committee on Government Assurances, on External Affairs, Consultative Committee of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Committee on Railways.

He was also a former director of Vayudoot, member of Assam Bar Council and former Chairman of Assam Small Scale Industries Development Council.

An ardent sports lover, Gogoi earlier played golf regularly, though he regrets not getting enough time to pursue his hobby as often as he would like, and keenly follows Cricket, Football and Tennis. He is also fond of reading, gardening, good food and earlier enjoyed shopping for his own clothes and accessories.

Married to Dolly Gogoi, a post graduate in Zoology from Gauhati University, in 1972, the couple has a daughter, Chandrima, an MBA who lives abroad with her husband, and a son Gaurav, who holds a degree in Public Administration from New York University, and is the party's MP from Kaliabor Lok Sabha constituency.

Gogoi's memoir 'Turnaround', published by Harper Collins, was released recently in New Delhi.