Guwahati: Union minister Rajen Gohain’s acquittal in a rape and sexual assault case on Monday did not help his chances of getting back in the race for the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat as a BJP candidate.Gohain, who has been winning the Nagaon seat since 1999, has been replaced by his protégé Rupak Sarmah as the saffron party candidate for the constituency. Gohain had left the race owing to the rape charges. When the Gauhati high court quashed the rape charges against him after the complainant submitted in court that she had lodged the case against Gohain out of anger, he made a last ditch attempt on Monday to convince the party’s national leadership to get his name on board immediately after high court order came.However, the BJP central election committee on Tuesday midnight announced Sarmah’s candidature from the seat. A press release by the panel’s secretary JP Nadda said his name was finalized at a meeting attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Rajnath Singh, finance minister Arun Jaitley, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and road transport minister Nitin Gadkari.To say Gohain’s supporters were disappointed would be an understatement. Gohain had groomed Sarmah, an entrepreneur, as a political leader. Sarmah went on to join BJP and be elected as an MLA under his tutelage.When Sarmah filed his nomination on Tuesday, he was flanked by chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma but Gohain was nowhere to be seen.BJP’s argument is that the strong Bengali-speaking support base Gohain has gained for the party over the years won’t erode even if the party candidate changes. Gohain’s supporters are now banking on the hope that the party will accommodate him in the Assam assembly, giving him a chance to contest the Nagaon assembly bypoll in case Sarmah makes it to the Lok Sabha.

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