Cong’s Pranjal eyes Chabua-Lahowal seat, seeks tea tribes’ backing | Guwahati News

Dibrugarh: The newly constituted Chabua-Lahowal constituency in Dibrugarh is set for a straight BJP-Congress clash, with BJP’s experienced legislator Binod Hazarika squaring off against Congress’s Pranjal Ghatowar.While JMM’s Bhupen Singh Murari and TMC’s Inus Kumar Kandapan are also in the fray, the poll battle is widely expected to be a two-horse race between the two principal parties.Hazarika was the sitting MLA of the now-abolished Lahowal constituency, having won in 2021, defeating Aam Aadmi Party candidate Manoj Dhanowar by a margin of 17,248 votes. Previously, Hazarika had scripted history in the 2016 elections by becoming the first BJP candidate to win from the Chabua seat, routing three-time Congress MLA Raju Sahu by a massive margin of 30,754 votes. With the Chabua-Lahowal having merged, Hazarika is effectively returning to a political landscape he knows intimately.However, his path to the ticket was not without friction. AGP’s Punakon Baruah — who had won the Chabua seat in 2021 after BJP had ceded it to its alliance partner — had also staked a claim for the new Chabua-Lahowal seat. Ultimately, BJP chose to field Hazarika, a decision that reflects the party’s confidence in his electoral track record.“I have served both Chabua and Lahowal in different capacities and I know the needs of this constituency deeply. The people here know my work and I am confident they will give me another mandate to continue building on what we have achieved,” Hazarika said on Thursday.Facing him is 45-year-old Pranjal Ghatowar, son of veteran Congress leader and former Union minister of DoNER Paban Singh Ghatowar, who himself hails from the tea community and has championed their cause. Congress’s choice of Pranjal is a calculated one — the constituency has 1,77,238 voters, of whom approximately 33% belong to the tea community, making it a decisive and sought-after bloc.“My father has devoted his life to the people of this region, especially to the tea community. I carry that legacy with me and I am committed to fighting for the rights, wages and dignity of tea garden workers who have been ignored for too long,” said Pranjal.Beyond the electoral rivalry, Chabua-Lahowal faces serious and recurring developmental challenges. Flood and erosion caused by the Brahmaputra and its tributary, the Buridehing, remain a persistent threat to large parts of the constituency.As two candidates with contrasting profiles — one a seasoned double-constituency legislator, the other a political heir seeking his first win — head into the final stretch of campaigning, Chabua-Lahowal’s vast tea garden electorate may well prove to be the decisive arbiter of this contest.