Don’t blame us for your poll defeat: Assam Jatiya Parishad to Congress

GUWAHATI: The Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) has hit back at the Congress for blaming the new regional party for ‘helping’ BJP to win the Assam election by splitting anti-BJP votes.
Addressing the media here on Thursday, AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi said the Congress is trying to cover up its failure by passing the buck to the new parties which had put up a tough fight against the BJP in several constituencies. Gogoi himself had to face a humiliating defeat at the hands of Congress and BJP in the two seats, Duliajan and Naharkatia respectively, from where he contested.
“They cannot escape by blaming others for their defeat, though we accept the people’s mandate. We hope that opposition parties will be the voice of the people in the assembly,” said Gogoi, vowing to come out stronger in the 2026 assembly polls. “Our next target is to go for expansion across Assam, based on our ideology. Those areas which we could not touch, will be covered in our expansion plan. In the upcoming municipal, panchayat and Lok Sabha election, we will get ready to fight. In the next five years, people will feel our strong presence,” he added. Gogoi affirmed that CAA is going to be a major issue for them in the days to come.
Political circles blamed opposition disunity as the prime reason behind BJP’s win in more than 20 of 126 seats, if the percentage of votes gained by the independent and anti-BJP party candidates are counted.
AICC general secretary in-charge of Assam Congress, Jitendra Singh, too blamed new regional parties born out of anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) movement, the AJP and Raijor Dal, for losing about 10 seats due to the splitting of anti-BJP votes. But the AJP vowed to continue its political journey, opposing national and ‘communal’ parties. This indicated that Congress and its allies are unlikely to get any support from the AJP anytime soon.
Gogoi, said that the defeat of all their candidates will be analyzed. But he clarified that the party would not deviate from its goal of establishing swabhimani jatiyatabad (self-esteemed regionalism), keeping an equal distance from the Congress and BJP. “Congress is not an alternative to BJP,” he said.
While BJP has imposed CAA to regularize the entry of Hindu migrants, Gogoi alleged that Congress has also played the 'Hindu card' by favouring citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis who came before 2014.
“We could touch seven lakh people and they voted for us, despite AJP being a 100-day old party. In five districts of Assam, we got 12 to about 16 percent votes. In 14 assembly constituencies, we got more than 10 percent votes.This was a strong performance put by a new party,” Bhuyan asserted.