Guwahati, April 21: Just ahead of the two-phase panchayat elections in Assam, the Congress-led Opposition alliance appears to be in disarray, with Sivasagar MLA and Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi accusing Congress leaders of sabotaging the alliance to benefit the BJP.
“The Congress crossed the limits of betrayal by fielding candidates for all six zilla parishads in Sivasagar instead of supporting us in the true spirit of alliance,” Gogoi told reporters. “We have consistently said that contesting separately would be suicidal, especially when the ruling BJP and its allies have far better coordination.”
Gogoi went on to allege that Congress’s Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi and Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia, who represents the Nazira Assembly constituency, are involved in an internal leadership tussle that may be undermining the alliance. He accused them of deliberately paving the way for a BJP sweep in the rural polls.
Raijor Dal, which Gogoi leads, is one of 16 constituents of the United Opposition Forum, Assam, which also includes the Left Front. The alliance, forged ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections, has shown increasing signs of strain—first during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and now again in the lead-up to the panchayat elections.
According to Gogoi, Congress has been placing candidates unilaterally without consulting its alliance partners. “There has been no coordination at all among the opposition parties,” he said.
Read: Tripura CM Manik Saha advocates for ‘One Nation, One Election’
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