The Lohawal constituency will witness a direct fight between Congress and BJP in the ensuing Assam Assembly elections.
While sitting BJP MLA Rituparna Baruah had won the Lahowal seat by defeating four-time Congress MLA Prithibi Maji in 2016, he was denied a ticket this time.
Baruah had defeated Majhi by a margin of 19,599 votes in the 2016 state assembly elections.
While Chabua BJP MLA Binod Hazarika will be contesting the Assam assembly elections from Lahowal constituency, the Congress has fielded Manoj Dhanowar in the constituency.
Dhanowar has been campaigning hard to retain the seat in the elections.
However, it remains to be seen whether supporters of the incumbent BJP MLA, who are displeased with the party leadership for denying him a ticket, will vote for the new BJP candidate.
Also read: Assam Assembly elections: Will CAA be the deciding factor in Chabua constituency?
Their resentment may very well go in favour of Congress candidate Dhanowar in the ensuing elections.
“The Lahowal constituency is dominated by the tea tribe community which will play an important role in deciding the fate of the candidates contesting here,” said a political observer.
Meanwhile, the Assam Tea Tribes Students Association (ATTSA) has called a total shutdown of all tea gardens across the state on March 22 after the ruling BJP government failed to address their demand for hike in daily wage of tea garden workers to Rs 350.
The other candidates from Lahowal constituency are Likhon Baruah of Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), Dibyajit Dutta of the Raijor Dal (RD), Pranab Saikia of the RLSP and independent candidate Prabhulal Vaishnava.