Assam: Congress keeps doors open for NDA allies & rebels to form government

GUWAHATI: The Congress is keeping its doors open for MLAs from the regional allies of the NDA, AGP and UPPL, as also rebels from the BJP, if any, to form a non-BJP government in Assam.
Senior Congressman Debabrata Saikia, who has been the leader of the Opposition in the assembly, said the people of Assam have not given a full mandate to the BJP as it could not touch the majority mark of 64 in the 126-member house. Despite a convincing victory over the Congress-led Mahajot, the selection of the chief ministerial candidate, between incumbent CM Sarbananda Sonowal and BJP’s face in the northeast, Himanta Biswa Sarma, has remained a sore point for the BJP high command.
Newly elected MLAs from the BJP coalition have separately met Sonowal and Himanta before the BJP parliamentary board takes a decision as to who will steer the second BJP-led government in Assam. Though no dissidence within the party has erupted over the chief ministerial candidate, sources in the BJP said a section of the MLAs may be in favour of Himanta, who is seen as the Chanakya of the northeast for the BJP. He has managed party affairs beyond Assam and led marathon rallies.
“I assure the members of BJP’s allies that if they come out of the alliance to help form a non-BJP government in Assam, I will request my party to support them. If someone rebels in the BJP, I will welcome it,” said Saikia, who had earlier triggered a controversy by offering AGP a chance to join hands with the Congress to topple the Sonowal government.
“The BJP has not performed well. Despite so much effort, they remained confined to 60 seats and failed to get a full mandate,” he added. On the contrary, he said, the people’s faith in the grand old party has gone up. The Congress has gained three seats while the BJP’s tally has remained static.
In 2016, riding the crest of the Modi wave, the BJP had embarked on a massive poll campaign themed on jati-mati-bheti (community, home and hearth). The BJP won 60 seats in that election and could form a government with the support of the AGP and BPF. Saikia alleged that despite the tall claims of the saffron party on their ‘achievements’ in the last five years, the BJP tally did not improve and remained the same despite the fact that the saffron party fielded more candidates this time. The BJP alone contested in 92 seats, while in the last election it was 86.
The Congress-led Mahajot ended up with 50 seats in Assam this election, of which Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF won 16, BPF four and CPM one. The Congress won 29 seats. The AICC general secretary in-charge of Assam, Jitendra Singh, has been blaming the new regional parties, the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and the Raijor Dal, for losing about 10 seats. “We could have inched closer to forming the next government in Assam, had the AJP and Raijor Dal not helped BJP by taking away a crucial share of the anti-BJP votes in selected constituencies,” Singh said.
The BJP termed Saikia’s proposal a day dream to capture power in Assam. State BJP chief spokesperson Rupam Goswami said such a proposal is ‘horse-trading’. “The Congress confined its candidates to resorts, allegedly fearing horse-trading attempts by other parties. But now they are tempting other party MLAs to change sides. People haven’t given a mandate at all to the Congress and its allies,” Goswami said.
“We won the election mainly because the people, especially in eastern and upper Assam, who were not favouring the Congress decision to align with Ajmal only to garner votes. The general perspective among most voters of indigenous communities is that Ajmal’s AIUDF would not flush out Muslim migrants. If any BJP ally joins hands with Ajmal, they will simply lose ground in their own constituencies,” said a BJP leader from eastern Assam.