Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on two-day visit to poll-bound Assam

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel will be on a two-day visit to poll-bound Assam on Monday. This will be Baghel’s first visit to the state after the recent appointment of the Congress leader as a senior observer for the upcoming assembly elections.

Baghel is one of three senior observers of Congress party for Assam assembly election slated in next few months. The other two are Mukul Wasnik and Shakeel Ahmad Khan.

“On Monday, the chief minister will meet some of the important leaders of the Congress party and on Tuesday, he will meet the office bearers of the party to boost their morale and also brainstorm on the upcoming campaigning will be done,” said Vikas Upadhyay, secretary Congress and in-charge Upper Assam Units told Hindustan Times.

Baghel will also review the preparations relating to poll preparedness by the party, he added.

The Congress won 26 seats of the 126 assembly seats in the 2016 elections.

The party, however, is down to 20 seats.

Mansing Rongpi, the Congress MLA from Baithalangso, was the first to quit the party months after his election on a Congress ticket. Rongpi had resigned and later won as a BJP candidate from the same seat.

In 2019, its sitting legislator from Jania, Abdul Khaleque, won from the Barpeta Lok Sabha seat. But the Congress could not retain the assembly seat in the by-election. The seat went to the All India United Democratic Front.

The Congress’s strength came down further last year with the death of two MLAs, Pranab Gogoi of Sivasagar and former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, who represented Titabar seat.

Last month, Ajanta Neog from eastern Assam's Golagha seat and Rajdeep Goala from southern Assam’s Lakhipur, who had been expelled from the Congress for anti-party activities were inducted in the BJP.