The Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, and Ayush, as well as a prominent leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sarbananda Sonowal will officially submit his candidacy for the Dibrugarh Lok Sabha constituency.
He is expected to be accompanied by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
On the other hand MP Pradan Baruah, has filed his nomination for the Lakhimpur seat.
From student politics to joining Asom Gana Parishador AGP, then switching to the saffron party and becoming a Union Minister and serving as the Chief Minister of Assam from 2016 to 2021 and holding the presidency of the Assam BJP during two terms: 2012 to 2014 and then from 2015 to 2016, Sonowal has come a long way in his political journey.
Notably, he also led the All Assam Students Union (AASU) from 1992 to 1999, which is the oldest student body in Assam.
Before joining the BJP in 2011, Sonowal, a three-time MLA (representing Moran once and Majuli twice), was actively involved in the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) party, which emerged after the Assam agitation. He won the Moran Assembly seat in 2001 under the AGP banner and retained his position until 2004.
In 2016, Sonowal secured victory in the Majuli Assembly seat and subsequently assumed the role of Chief Minister. However, in 2021, he won the Majuli seat but resigned as the MLA when he was appointed as a Rajya Sabha MP and inducted into the Union Cabinet following Himanta Biswa Sarma’s appointment as Chief Minister of Assam the same year.
In the upcoming elections, Sonowal is contesting for the Dibrugarh seat, replacing the incumbent party MP and Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Labour and Employment, Rameswar Teli, who had previously won the seat in 2014 and 2019.
The Lok Sabha elections will be conducted in seven phases starting from April 19 to June 1, covering all 543 seats. Vote counting is scheduled for June 4. In Assam, the elections will be conducted in three phases: April 19, 26, and May 7. Five Lok Sabha seats – Kaziranga, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, and Jorhat – will go to polls in the first phase.
