GUWAHATI: With the demise of Assam’s longest-serving chief minister Tarun Gogoi, the state has lost one of its tallest leaders. Gogoi with a simple but blunt personality was even loved by opposition party leaders for his able leadership and clean image.
Gogoi was immensely popular among the public for his straight-forwardness and jovial personality.
“His simplicity and personality attracted everyone,” said opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) MLA Brindaban Goswami.
Goswami stated that despite political differences, Gogoi had never harboured any kind of enmity towards opposition leaders.
Tarun Gogoi was born in 1936 at the Rangajan Tea Estate of Jorhat district. His father was a medical practitioner at the tea estate while his mother was the younger sister of renowned Assamese poet Ganesh Gogoi.
He graduated from Jagannath Barooah College in Jorhat and after that did LLB from Gauhati University. He married Dolly Gogoi in 1972 and have two children – Chandrima, an MBA and settled in the US, and Gaurav, who is also a Congress leader and MP.
Rising through the ranks, Gogoi led the Congress in Assam to three consecutive electoral victories in the state. In 2012, he became the longest-serving chief minister in the state after serving for 12 consecutive years.
Tarun Gogoi started his political career as a ward member of the Jorhat Municipality in 1968.
In 1971, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha and served for six terms till 2001, first from Jorhat and later from Koliabor.
However, Gogoi came into the national limelight after he was selected as the Joint Secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in 1976, under the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
He then went on to serve the party as the President of the Assam Congress from 1986 to 1990, and was then re-elected for a second term in 1996.
He has also served four terms as Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Assam from 1986 to 2001, before being elected as chief minister for the first time.
He stayed CM from 2001 to 2016, a total of 15 years.
