No alliance, Congress will go alone in Assam by-polls

In Assam, Congress party will fight the assembly by-polls alone without forming any alliance. The by-polls are likely to take place by the end of this year. Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah said in Guwahati. “We’ve suffered due to alliances. Local leaders have been disheartened due to losses sustained in the last assembly polls. We want to strengthen our roots and contest the coming by-polls alone,” he said. Borah said on Monday that the Congress is still undecided whether it will contest all the six seats where by-polls will be held. Notification for the by-polls to the assembly seats is yet to be released. In order to enthuse the ground workers and strengthen the party organisation keeping in mind the Lok Sabha polls in 2024 and the assembly elections in 2026, the Congress will fight the by-polls alone, he added. 

“It will send a strong message to our workers that we are serious about rebuilding the party. We had some discussions with regional opposition parties like the Raijor Dal (RD) and the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP). But the Raijor Dal has already announced the candidate for one seat,” Borah said. Two seats were left vacant after the deaths of lawmakers, one each from Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and United Peoples Party Liberal (UPPL) due to Covid-19. Three other seats fell vacant after two Congress and one AIUDF MLA shifted to the BJP. The sixth seat is likely to be vacated by former chief minister and Majuli MLA Sarbananda Sonowal, who joined the Union cabinet earlier this year.

“We need to be realistic. We lost the Majuli seat by over 48,000 votes in the assembly polls. Hence, it might not be reasonable to contest from there. We will definitely contest four of the six seats. Applications have been invited from prospective candidates and the deadline for it is September 27,” he said.