Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: At a time when the constituent parties of the Congress-led opposition alliance in Assam fail to strike a happy medium on seat-sharing, a confident Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma has claimed that the BJP-led coalition will field candidates in as many as 103 constituencies in the 2026 Assembly election in the state. The Chief Minister claims to sweep clean in this electoral battle.
As many as seven parties, including the Congress, AJP, Raisor Dal, CPI and the CPI-M, got into a huddle on November 12 in Guwahati to draw their strategies to oust the BJP from power in the state. Strangely enough, barely two days after the meeting, Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi openly asked the opposition front to clarify the seat-sharing plan within ten days. The statement of the Raijor Dal president met with derision from Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Gaurav Gogoi.
He said, “Akhil Gogoi keeps changing his words frequently. He shouldn’t have made such statements, which are meant for discussion within the alliance, in public.”
The entire opposition is creating a narrative that the ‘special revision’ of the electoral roll will have provisions for the inclusion of new voters in the state electorate from outside. They also allege that these provisions will pave the way for the BJP-led coalition to win. BJP leaders and cadres, on the contrary, are too busy working at the grassroots level doing all the spadework that may ensure their win. The election is barely five months away. The Congress-led alliance is yet to strengthen its grip at the grassroots level.
The Chief Minister said, “The people of Assam won’t vote for the Congress that supports the Miyans. BJP’s politics is for the Assamese who eke out their living through hard work. Emotion has no room in politics. The Congress is encashing the public emotion after the demise of Zubeen Garg. The opposition alliance has only two MLAs, barring those of the Congress. The other parties have little representation in the state Assembly. The AIUDF, with 17 MLAs, is out of the opposition alliance. Apart from this, five of the 26 Congress MLAs are about to desert the party. Congress MLAs Sashikant Das, Basanta Das and Kamalakshya Purkayastha openly side with the BJP. The Congress suspended MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed. MLA Siddeque Ahmed is about to join the AGP.”
The Chief Minister said, “In every election, we give preferences to youth and women candidates. It will be no different in this Assembly election as well. Rather, we can bring more new faces in this election, because we will field candidates in 103 constituencies against 90 in the 2021 Assembly election.”
Meanwhile, AIUDF president Badruddin Ajmal reiterated that his party would in no way ally with the Congress.
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