Quitting party, says Congress candidate in Udalguri on eve of Assam polls

Suren Daimari said he decided to leave the Congress after waiting for a long time for the party leaders to respond to his requests for assistance and guidance

In a setback for the Congress just a day before Assam heads to the polls, the party candidate for the Udalguri (ST) constituency, Suren Daimari, on Wednesday announced his resignation from the party. Daimari cited a total lack of organisational support and communication from the state leadership as the reason for his exit.

Daimari said he had communicated his decision to withdraw from the election to the Election Commission of India

Daimari said the party abandoned him immediately after filing his nomination last month and complained that he received no guidance or financial support for his campaign from the party leadership.

“They made me the candidate, but throughout the campaign, the leadership did not maintain even basic communication,” Daimari said, adding that he attempted to contact senior leaders but did not receive a response.

“There was no coordination, no support or guidance,” he said.

Daimari said he had communicated his decision to withdraw from the election to the Election Commission of India. But election officials said it was too late to back out of the fray since the deadline to withdraw nomination papers ended on March 26.

The Congress, however, said Daimary had given a statement to the media but had not sent his resignation to the party. “We are not aware of it as he did not submit the resignation before the party officially. However, we’ll communicate with him,” said Assam Congress spokesperson Bedabrata Bora.

Polling for the 126-member Assam Assembly will be held on Thursday with 722 candidates.

Daimary was one of the four candidates for the Udalguri seat. The other three are United Peoples Party Liberal’s (UPPL) Dipen Boro, Bodoland Peoples Front’s (BPF) Rihon Daimari and Voters Party International’s (VPI) Unike Basumatary.