Now only a few things are left in the Assam Assembly elections. The Election Commission may announce the election dates at the end of this month. In view of this, all the political parties contesting elections in the state have reached the final stages while exploring the possibilities. In such a situation, many alliances can be formed in Assam and can also get spoiled. Amidst these discussions, social worker-turned-politician MLA Akhil Gogoi is becoming increasingly talked about in Assam. These days Gogoi is in the news for alliance with Assam’s main opposition party Congress.
Actually, in Assam, there is talk of an alliance between Akhil Gogoi’s party Raijor Dal and Congress for the 2026 assembly elections. But, this alliance has not been fully finalized yet. Akhil Gogoi has had talks with Congress in-charge for Assam Bhanwar Jitendra Singh and state president Gorav Gogoi regarding seat-sharing, but there is a lot of tension and controversy between the two parties regarding seat-sharing. In such a situation, let us know what is the dispute between the two and how many seats is Rajyor Dal demanding from Congress…
Akhil wants alliance with Congress
Akhil Gogoi is the national president of Raijor Dal. He is in favor of opposition unity and wants to form an alliance with Congress to remove BJP from power. Akhil Gogoi’s party contested the 2021 Assam Assembly elections for the first time. In the last assembly elections, Raijor Dal had fielded candidates on a total of 29 seats. The party got only one seat, which was won by Akhil Gogoi himself. He reached the assembly by winning from Sivasagar assembly constituency.
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When Akhil Gogoi won the elections, he was in jail in cases related to the anti-CAA movement. Apart from this, the overall performance of Rajyor Dal was limited. Gogoi’s party was mainly in the news among the opposition parties as a vote-getter. In some assembly seats, his party’s votes were more than BJP’s victory margin, due to which Congress is considered to have suffered a loss.
What does Akhil Gogoi want from Congress?
Actually, Akhil Gogoi has asked for at least 12-15 assembly seats from Congress in this assembly elections. In this, he is especially demanding the seats of his choice and winning seats. But, Congress has so far offered him only 4 seats. Akhil Gogoi is said to be angry over this. On February 21, he said that his party is stronger than the Congress in Upper Assam and if the demands are not met, he will take the final decision on the alliance.
This decision was taken in the emergency meeting of Rajyor Dal called to discuss the opposition alliance before the Assam Assembly elections. Speaking to the media after the meeting, Gogoi said the party members have given him full authority to negotiate with the Congress and get the 15 seats that party workers deserve.
He said that the party cadre has expressed unhappiness with the seats distributed by the Congress so far. Also requested to hold talks again with the state leadership of Congress. Gogoi said, ‘We have always been in favor of alliance and will continue to be so. But seat-sharing should be done democratically.
What will happen if 15 seats are not given?
He said, ‘If Raijor Dal is not given 15 seats as per its requirement, then I have been given the right to rethink the alliance. Now the ball is in Congress’s court and it has to consider. However, he further said that Congress has indicated that it is ready to give 15 seats, but the disagreement is over specific constituencies. He said, ‘As per our choice, we have been given only four seats so far. We want 15 seats of our choice. If not, then at least 12 seats are required.
Also read: From Himanta to Bhupen Bora, who joined Assam BJP from Congress?
Congress will contest elections on 100 seats
In this election, Congress has already announced that it will contest on 100 seats in the state, while leaving the remaining 26 seats for its alliance partners. There are 6 political parties in the Congress led alliance, in which everyone has to be respected. Objecting to the Congress’s decision to contest elections on 100 seats, Akhil Gogoi said that such a method is not acceptable if the alliance partners are not given their fair share.
Pointing to the figures of the last election, he said, ‘We have heard that 26 seats are not equal among the six parties. Congress always wins most of the seats. In the 2016 assembly elections, Congress contested 122 seats and won 26. After this, in the 2021 elections, it contested 95 seats and won 29.
Akhil Gogoi wrote a letter
He said, ‘At least 60 seats will have to be won to form the government. If the same formula is repeated then it will be difficult for the alliance to succeed. He also said that he had written letters to Congress leaders Jitendra Singh and Gaurav Gogoi seeking clarity on seat-sharing but has not received any reply yet. However, Akhil Gogoi has expressed hope of positive results in the next few days.
In such a situation, as the talks have reached an important phase, the new proposal of Raijor Dal has increased the pressure on Congress to re-decide its seat-sharing formula. If this does not happen then the risk of rift in the opposition alliance will increase.
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