Duliajan Election: Rameswar Teli returns to his Assembly seat as BJP eyes hattrick against Congress

Teli will face Congress candidate Dhruba Gogoi in the 2026 Assam Assembly elections.

Rameswar Teli has replaced two-time MLA Terash Gowalla as the BJP candidate, after the sitting legislator was nominated for the Rajya Sabha seat in Assam. Teli had won the 2001 and 2006 polls from the Duliajan seat and has also served as the Dibrugarh MP before entering the Rajya Sabha. The BJP leader has also served as the Union Minister of State (MoS) for Food Processing Industries and Labour.

Now, the BJP has called him back into state politics, while sending Gowalla to the Upper House of Parliament in his place.

Duliajan, once considered a Congress bastion from 1985 to 2001 under Amiya Gogoi, came under BJP control in 2016. Teli initially took over the seat in 2001, which was reclaimed by Amiya Gogoi in 2011, before the BJP regained it. The party now eyes a hat-trick of victories in the constituency with Teli as its candidate.

In the 2021 Assam Assembly elections, Terash Gowalla defeated Dhruba Gogoi by a margin of 8,110 (6.4 per cent) votes.

Meanwhile, Dhruba Gogoi has a chance to secure the seat amid an anti-incumbency anxiety. In the last elections, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) President Lurinjyoti Gogoi was also in the fray from Duliajan and managed to win 24,192 votes.

This time around, the AJP is contesting along with Congress in an alliance. Even if the party emerged out of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) agitation may not boost Congress' chances in Duliajan, it would definitely not cut the anti-BJP votes falling in favour of Congress.

Among Congress' star campaigners, MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned for Dhruba Gogoi, addressing a rally in Tingkhong on April 1.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), a Congress ally in Jharkhand, has taken a lone road in Assam and fielded Peter Minj on the Duliajan seat. However, the JMM does not have much influence in Assam, and Duliajan is set to witness a contest between the BJP and Congress yet again.

Duliajan seat is part of the Dibrugarh Parliamentary constituency, a region known for its tea plantations. Votes of the tea plantation workers in Duliajan will be an important factor in the elections.

The BJP seem to have an edge here with Prime Minister Narendra Modi handing over land ownership documents to tea garden workers in Assam last month. PM Modi also visited a tea garden in Dibrugarh and interacted with workers there.

The polling for all 126 constituencies in the Assam Assembly will be held in a single phase on April 9, while the counting of votes is scheduled for May 4. (ANI)