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Assam polls: Congress jolted by leaders’ exits, Gogoi stitches 5-party alliance
Congress faces major setbacks in Assam as key leaders join BJP, even as Gaurav Gogoi forms a 5-party alliance to revive the party’s poll prospects.
The Congress in Assam has suffered a series of jolts ahead of the assembly elections, with senior leaders Bhupen Kumar Borah and Pradyut Bordoloi defecting to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Even as the party reels from these exits, state president Gaurav Gogoi has stitched together a multi-party alliance in a bid to revive its electoral prospects.
Gogoi managed to cobble up an alliance with three other parties—the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), formed after the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in 2020; the All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC), which has a presence in the three hill districts; and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has one MLA in the outgoing assembly.
On Thursday, another prominent regional outfit, Raijor Dal—the second party formed after anti-CAA protests in Assam, which has one MLA—joined the Congress-led alliance with an agreement to contest 11 seats and have ‘friendly fights’ in two more.
Also Read: Assam BJP drops 19 sitting MLAs, fields ex-Congress leaders in key seats
“The common people of Assam want an end to the misrule of BJP under Himanta Biswa Sarma and hence we decided to join hands with Congress to overthrow the present government and form the next government with Gaurav Gogoi at the helm,” Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi said.
A visibly relieved Gaurav thanked Akhil Gogoi for agreeing to the seat-sharing agreement and said that the five-party alliance would campaign together across most seats to ensure a win.
“I had dreamt about forging an alliance with AJP and Raijor Dal in 2021 itself, but it didn’t materialise at that time due to various circumstances. Now we have come together leaving aside our differences. I request other parties to join us in the fight against the present government,” Gaurav Gogoi said.
A sizeable section of the ruling party’s candidates are former Congress members—some who switched over a decade ago, such as Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and others like Bordoloi, who resigned as a Lok Sabha MP and joined the BJP just a day before being given a ticket.
A review of the party’s list shows that around 19 candidates have a Congress background.
Borah, who switched sides in February, was a former president of the Congress party’s state unit. He was unhappy with how the Congress was banking on Rakibul Hussain, a Lok Sabha MP, to take crucial decisions.
Bordoloi, who wore the saffron cap this week, is a sitting MP and former minister, and was chairman of the Congress’s manifesto drafting committee. He was demanding that the sitting MLA from Lahorighat, Asif Mohamad Nazar, should not be given a ticket. On Thursday, the Congress named Nazar as its candidate for Lahorighat again.
“I had brought the matter to the notice of the party leadership but was feeling unheard, lonely and sidelined,” said Bordoloi on Wednesday.
The Congress, which ruled consecutively for three terms from 2001 to 2016, has witnessed such desertions since 2015, when a senior minister in the Tarun Gogoi cabinet left for the BJP along with nine MLAs.
Over the past decade, Sarma has played a key role in bringing the BJP to power in 2016 and again in 2021, when he was given the CM’s post. Significantly, he has also weaned away five MLAs and several other Congress leaders.
While he was not at the helm when the earlier desertions happened, Borah and Bordoloi switching sides has hurt Congress state president Gaurav Gogoi’s hopes of reviving the party’s fortunes. The 43-year-old son of former CM Tarun Gogoi was given the party mantle last year. He tried to bring back the two senior leaders after they submitted resignations, but failed.
