The electoral combat in Dibrugarh, the easternmost of Assam’s 14 Lok Sabha constituencies, is between crusaders against contrasting laws involving migrants or refugees from Bangladesh.
BJP heavyweight and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, 61, has a few things in common with his main rival, the 44-year-old Lurinjyoti Gogoi of the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) in Dibrugarh. They were leaders of the All Assam Students’ Union, the launch pad for many an aspiring politician in Assam and they rose to prominence handling the “Bangladeshi” issue, an electoral staple.
Mr. Sonowal fought a legal battle in the Supreme Court to have the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act scrapped in 2005 while Mr. Gogoi floated his party primarily to safeguard the interests of the indigenous people by resisting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019.
