Congress Puts Assam Alliance Talks With Raijor Dal on Hold After Seat-Sharing Deadlock

The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has put its alliance negotiations with Raijor Dal on hold, with APCC President Gaurav Gogoi on Wednesday confirming that multiple rounds of talks failed to produce a workable seat-sharing arrangement ahead of the Assam Legislative Assembly elections.

In a statement posted on his Facebook handle, Gogoi said Congress had pursued the alliance in response to public demand for a united Opposition front, but that fundamental disagreements had made it impossible to move forward for now.

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Gogoi was candid about the reasons for the impasse, pointing to differing political agendas and a lack of mutual trust between the two parties as the core obstacles.

He wrote: "Despite many efforts, we have not been able to create a favourable and promising environment for the alliance with the Raijor Dal as the people of Assam want. For various reasons, we have not been able to develop the alliance between the two parties in the way the people want, such as differing political agendas and a lack of mutual trust."

Gogoi also noted that seat allocation in any electoral alliance must be grounded in a realistic assessment of winning prospects. He said Congress had approached the seat-sharing discussions from a broad perspective with that goal in mind, but the talks still could not reach a mutually agreeable conclusion.

Despite the breakdown, Gogoi stopped short of calling the alliance permanently off. "I have recently taken a break from the issue of alliance with the Raijor Dal for a while. We will revisit this issue later," he wrote, leaving open the possibility of renewed negotiations ahead of the elections.