Guwahati
The Congress has fielded the son of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in southern Assam’s Hailakandi constituency.
Rahul Roy, a former MLA, did not leave the Congress after his father and former Minister, Gautam Roy, crossed over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2021 election. Both lost — the former from Udharbond and the latter from the Katigorah seat.
The junior Mr. Roy, who contested the 2021 election as an Independent, is the Congress candidate from the Hailakandi constituency this time. He featured in the party’s fourth list of candidates for seven seats, including Naoboicha, where Joy Prakash Das has replaced the incumbent Bharat Narah.
Among the seven in Bidisha Neog, who faces Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Jalukbari.
Rahul Roy is the second Congress candidate with a BJP leader in the family. Prateek Bordoloi was in the first list of 42 Congress candidates released on March 3.
However, Mr Bordoloi withdrew as a candidate from the Margherita constituency after his MP father, Pradyut Bordoloi, quit Congress and joined the BJP on March 18.
Meanwhile, the BJP named Jiban Gogoi and Krishna Saha as the party’s candidates for the Sissiborgaon and Dalgaon constituencies. The latter is the seventh woman fielded by the party.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) also named candidates for 17 seats in Assam. One of them is the party’s Assam unit vice-president Dulu Ahmed, fielded from the Chamaria constituency.
Published – March 21, 2026 07:26 pm IST
