By Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : Union minister Rajen Gohain, known to be close with the BJP leadership and RSS manages to enlist wife Rita Gohain in expected list of candidates for Lok Sabha polls.Union Junior Railway Minister Rajen Gohain today admitted that sex tapes had stopped him from becoming the first MP to win five consecutive times. As he announced his departure from Lok Sabha fray from the BJP, he candidly admitted before media that it was the sex tape which had forced him to take the decision. Mr Gohain is a four-time consecutive MP and the fifth term was a distinct possibility till a sex tape surfaced followed by a case of sexual abuse against him. Although the lower court exonerated him, the higher court has not yet absolved him.

“As the date of the next hearing is March 25 and the next date is the last date of filing nomination papers if for some reasons case gets delayed it will be a problem for my party to select and prepare a new candidate at that late stage. So I decided to opt out he said. What he did not say was that he sidestepped only after ensuring the ticket to his wife Rita Nath Gohain. “As there is a criminal case going on against me, I have decided not to contest the elections,” said Gohain. “I do not want to hamper my party by contesting this election,” he further added. The sex tape surfaced about a year back since then it has continued to haunt the veteran MP. Although he denied the charges, a sexual abuse case was slapped on him.

There were, in fact, two sex tapes, one a video of Gohain in adulterous position and another an audio tape of he threatening the husband of the victim for going to press. The BJP in all probability will bestow the ticket of the prestigious Tezpur parliamentary seat to state finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Likewise, murmurs were doing the rounds that Rajen Gohain’s candidature is also uncertain and new face Rupak Sharma may contest from Nagaon. Earlier, Gohain had gone on record while expressing his displeasure over the developments in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. He was even heard talking to media that it will be ‘really unfortunate’ if he was denied the ticket. He also said in public that he had brought Rupak Sarma into politics. He had even claimed earlier that more majority of the grassroots workers in the constituency will not cooperate with a new candidate.