HIS EARLY LIFE
Akhil Gogoi is an Indian peasant leader, RTI activist, and MLA from Sibsagar, Assam. Born on 1st March 1976, Jorhat. Akhil Gogoi attended the Cotton College during the year 1993- 1996, where he pursued his studies in English Literature. During his college days, he also served as the general secretary and magazine secretary of the college students union.
He is a resident of Nizarapur, Guwahati. He is the son of the Late Boluram Gogoi and his mother Priyada Gogoi. He is married to Gitashree Tamuly who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Assamese at B Barooah College, Guwahati.
HIS CAMPAIGN AND MOVEMENT
Akhil Gogoi is one of the founding members of the recently formed Raijor Dal on 2nd October 2020. He is also the leader and founder of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSs)
Gogoi is also an RTI activist and he was also associated with Anna Hazare during the Anti-Corruption movement of 2011-2012.
Earlier in 2009, Gogoi was associated with the Anti- Big Dam and Land Reclamation Campaign. This movement was against the construction of big dams in the ecologically sensitive region of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
He was also associated with Anna Hazare in his campaign against corruption.
Further, in 2013, Gogoi along with his members established several retail outlets in different parts of Guwahati city to avail direct access of rural peasants with the urban markets. This organization expressed its plans to open more outlets in the city permanently. The motive behind the introduction of the outlets was to enable the rural peasants to sell their produce directly without middlemen getting involved. More than a hundred quintals of vegetables were reported to be sold on the first day of opening the outlets.
In April 2010 in a secret report, his name got involved with CPI-Maoist. However, Gogoi challenged the government to prove the allegation. Gogoi in an interview with the NTDV said that he is a Marxist and he does believe in social transformation. But he is not a Maoist. Later, this matter stopped and did not continue further.
On December 12th, 2019, he was arrested on charges under two separate cases in connection with the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Assam which was filed against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, PTI reported.
He was arrested when he was leading a protest against Citizenship Amendment Act outside the deputy commissioner’s office in Jorhat.
The National Investigating Agency (NIA) was investigating two cases under UAPA against Gogoi and his associates. One case was filed at the Chabua Police station in Assam and the other was registered with the Chandmari police station in Guwahati.
However, the CAA activist Akhil Gogoi has been released after 19 months of custody.
HIS ACHIEVEMENTS
In 2008, Gogoi came to national prominence after being awarded the Shanmugam Manjunath Integrity Award.
In the year 2010, Gogoi was conferred with the National Right to Information Award by the Public Cause Research Foundation for helping expose a 12.3 million dollar scam in Sampoorna Gram Rozgar Yojna in Assam’s Golaghat district.
Finally, in May 2021 he won the election from Sibsagar Constituency which is a great achievement in his political career.
HIS POLITICAL JOURNEY
Earlier this year he became the first Assamese to win an election without hitting any campaign trial even once. He contested the election from the Sibsagar constituency. He defeated his close rival Surabhi Rajkonwari of the BJP by a margin of 11,875 votes.
He contested being an Independent candidate and garnering a total of 57,219 votes and gathering support from almost 46.06% of the electorate.
The RTI activists tried to reach out to the people by sending open letters from jail.
His 85-year-old mother pulk the courage to campaign for his imprisoned son in Sibsagar despite her age and ailments.
The volunteers from Raijor Dal took part efficiently in the door-to-door campaign `for their leader. His party workers also campaigned using standees and photographs of Gogoi.
Renowned social activists Medha Patkar and Sandeep Pandey flew down to Upper Assam and joined the 85-year-old mother of Akhil Gogoi in her campaigns.
Akhil Gogoi had fought for the right of indigenous people from the very beginning that could be the possible reason why he reached the sentiments of these indigenous people which led him to win the election despite being under bars.
Akhil Gogoi was the only candidate from newly- formed regional parties post CAA protest to have won a seat apart from the fact he contested, campaigned, and won from jail.
Political analyst Atiqur Rehman Barbhuiya said that it would be written in history as Akhil Gogoi is the only political prisoner who will remain a model after former union minister George Fernandes, who won the Lok Sabha election in 1977 by a huge number of votes of more than three lakh, from Muzaffarpur, Bihar Jail.
Akhil Gogoi was granted special permission after his win by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take oath as legislator of Assam Assembly.
After his victory, he wrote a letter thanking the people of Assam. He also said that he would address core issues of Assam as an MLA and would stand against all “anti-people, anti-national, and anti-Assam” steps of the government.
