The battle lines for the Lok Sabha elections in high profile Guwahati constituency have been drawn with the Congress fielding Bobbeeta Sharma for the seat on Friday.
In Guwahati constituency, which will go to polls in the third phase on April 23, the main contest will be between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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Actor, director, television producer and Congress party leader Bobbeeta will be facing another woman candidate, Queen Ojah of the BJP in the prestigious constituency.
Both Ojah and Shama, who contested Assembly polls from Guwahati (East) constituency in 2011 and 2016 respectively, suffered defeat.
The Congress has finally reposed faith in 52-year-old Bobbeta for the seat despite several other party leaders including Ramen Borthakur, Kirip Chaliha and Bolin Bordoloi lobbied for ticket for contesting from the seat.
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While Sharma, who once taught History at Pandu College in Guwahati, has been associated with the Congress party since 1985, Ojah was involved in historic Assam Agitation as AASU activist and joined party politics after formation of AGP in 1985.
67-year-old Ojah was elected as Mayor of Gauhati Municipal Corporation (GMC) on AGP ticket in 1996 and served in the office till 1997.
Ojah resigned from the AGP before Lok Sabha polls in 2014 to switch to the saffron party. She was later appointed as spokesperson of the state BJP.
Sharma, who is fluent in English and Hindi besides her mother-tongue Assamese, is a post graduate from Gauhati University while Ojah passed the matriculation from Panbazar Girls’ High School in 1968.
Sharma is currently senior spokesperson and general secretary of the Assam PCC. She became politically more active when she was appointed as the spokesperson of the APCC in 2002.
Sharma also served as chairperson of the Assam State Film Finance and Development Corporation from 2005 to 2016 and has authored a book titled The Moving Image and Assamese Culture-Joymoti, Jyotiprasad Agarwala, and Assamese Cinema, which traces the history of Assamese cinema.
Sharma, a well-known name in Assamese television and films, was associated with the cultural world of Assam when she was introduced as a child artiste in Bhabendra Nath Saikia’s National Award-winning film Anirban in 1978.
After that, she acted in numerous films and television serials.
Her serial titled Bidexot Apun Manuh on Assamese Diaspora settled in different countries, which was one of the longest-running serial on DDK Guwahati, received widespread appreciation.