Assam, 23rd November: Congress satrap and three-time Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi died on Monday evening from post-Covid complications.
86-year-old former CM had been on life support and was “very very critical” according to doctors at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) where he was being treated for multiple organ failure.
Here is a look at his decades-long career:
Assam’s longest-serving CM, Tarun Gogoi was born on April 1, 1936, at Rangajan Tea Estate, erstwhile Sivasagar district, now the Jorhat District of Assam.
Fondly called Punakon by his parents – father Dr. Kamaleshwar Gogoi and mother Usha Gogoi. Former CM completed his primary education at the No 26 Rangajan Nimna Buniyadi Vidyalaya.
He studied up to Class 4 at Jorhat Madrassa School and then he moved to Bholaguri High School located near Badulipar Tea Estate where he studied till Class 6.
In 1949, Tarun Gogoi was enrolled at the Jorhat Government High School, from where he passed the HSLC examination (Class 10) and he did his graduation from Jagannath Barooah College, Jorhat, and LLB from Gauhati University.
Tarun Gogoi ties the knot with Dolly Gogoi on July 30, 1972, and they have two children – one daughter, Chandrima Gogoi and another is son, Gaurav Gogoi.
Gogoi had served six terms as a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Lok Sabha.
He first represented Jorhat parliamentary constituency in 1971–85 and later he was elected from Kaliabor. He has elected to the 12th Lok Sabha in 1998 and re-elected to the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999.
Tarun Gogoi was elected Joint Secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in 1976 under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and he later served as General Secretary of the AICC (1985–90) under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Gogoi served in the Union Cabinet of India under Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao as Union Minister of State in the Food and Food Processing Industry departments from 1991 to 1996.
Tarun Gogoi was the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Food between 1991 and 1993. From 1993 to 1995, he served as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Food Processing Industry.
In the following year, Tarun Gogoi held memberships of Committee on Government Assurances, Committee on External Affairs and Consultative Committee, Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
He was also served as the President of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) in 1986–90 and he was elected to a second term as President of APCC in 1996. Gogoi had served five terms as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the Assam Legislative Assembly.
In 1997, he was elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly from the Margherita assembly constituency in the Tinsukia district and he was elected to the Assam assembly from Titabar constituency in 2001. He was the Chief Minister of Assam for three consecutive terms from 2001 to 2016.
