Congress completes post-mortem of poll debacle

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, May 29: After a 10-day post-mortem of the Congress’ defeat in the assembly elections, State unit vice president and MP Ripun Bora has zeroed in on five key factors that resulted in the party’s poll debacle.

The five factors are – division of votes, polarization engineered by the RSS, anti-incumbency after 15-year rule, lackluster election strategy, and discrepancies in selection of beneficiaries for different schemes at panchayat level.

According to a press note issued by Bora, in eight seats, the Congress suffered defeat due to division of votes triggered by rebel candidates. In 16 others, the AIUDF dented its vote banks, while in 6 seats in BTAD, it lost due to division of votes among the AIUDF, Independents and O-Bodo Oikya Mancha candidates. Bora’s report further said the Left parties contributed to its defeat in three seats.

At Amguri, from where the party’s nominee was State Congress president Anjan Dutta’s daughter Ankita, the party lost due to “an exceptiol situation”, the report said.