Sivasagar MLA and Raijor Dal chief Akhil Gogoi on Saturday returned home to a rousing welcome at his Lukhurakhan village of Selenghat Mariani area in upper Assam’s Jorhat district.
Hundreds of people gathered to meet the firebrand leader who had been permitted 48 hours by the NIA court to meet his family in Guwahati and mother, Priyada Gogoi and kin in Selenghat.
He had an emotional reunion with his mother even while the huge crowd had gathered to greet him with the traditional phulam gamosa.
Gogoi was arrested in December, 2019 from Jorhat and charged under UPPA by the NIA for allegedly inciting violence during the Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Dibrugarh.
He has been in jail since then and won the Assam Assembly elections from Sivasagar legislative Assembly seat from jail in March this year.
An emotional Akhil said that all that he wanted to do was rest on the lap of his mother and spend time alone with her.
Addressing the gathering, Gogoi said that he would next time go to Sivasagar and work for the all-round development of his constituency and promote the immense tourism potential of the place, which was full of Ahom era monuments.
Gogoi criticized the prevailing political environment in the state, comparing it to that of UP where the diktat of only one person ran and everyone was bowing and scraping to him.
“This has to change. We have to bring democracy back to Assam,” he said.
Gogoi also slammed former Mariani MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi for floor-crossing, stating that he had committed a political blunder.
“Rupjyoti is like my brother and always will be, but he did wrong and will have to repent for this. We will defeat him and he will pay for betraying the people’s trust,” Gogoi said.
Gogoi said that his mother required an eye operation but every time she had gone to be operated on a couple of occasions, either her blood pressure fell or something else happened and the operation could not be done
“This time I might not be able to do anything but next time when I come or am granted bail I’ll make arrangements,” he said.
Gogoi said that he came from a poor family and that his mother had toiled hard to raise him and his siblings as their father had been ill.
“My purpose in life will be fulfilled if every person gets a good life. I will work hard and try to ensure that others don’t suffer from want as we did, “he said.
“I never thought that one day I would become an MLA. I won the elections from jail and I do not view myself as an MLA. But I swear by my mother that I’m not going to be a corrupt or fraudulent MLA and will always be accessible to all. I will always raise my voice for the people as I have always done,” he added.
Gogoi said he was looking forward to eating the food that his mother had cooked as there was nothing more delicious than he had ever tasted than what she cooked.
He said that he was especially fond of eating a dish made of bamboo shoots and tender jute leaves which his mother excelled in.
Gogoi reached his home around 12.30 pm amid tight security and later in the day no one was allowed to enter the house by security personnel.