Lok Sabha polls: AICC gen secy holds meet to regain lost bastions in Assam

GUWAHATI: With an eye on next year’s Lok Sabha polls, AICC general secretary and party’s state in-charge Jitendra Singh on Thursday held meetings to formulate a strategy to regain its lost bastions in Assam.
Singh held a closed-door meeting with senior party leaders from Diphu, Dhubri, Karimganj, Silchar and Kokrajhar parliamentary constituencies in the presence of state PCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah and other state-level leaders. Congress sources said the meeting focused on energising party workers in the constituencies where the BJP-led alliance is going to pose the biggest challenge.
While the Congress leadership will discuss poll strategies and party affairs for six other Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam, including the Gauhati seat on Friday, party sources said it will discuss the plan for Barpeta, Kaliabor and Nagaon later. Party sources said the confidence-level is high in these three constituencies from where the party candidates had won in 2019 despite the Modi wave.
“Congress will definitely be happy to field some young candidates, but the sitting MPs from Kaliabor (Gaurav Gogoi), Barpeta (Abdul Khaleque) and Nagaon (Pradyut Bordoloi) are going strong,” said a party leader, hinting at the possibility of fielding the three again.
Even as minority voters play a determining role in four of the five seats on which elaborate discussions were held on Thursday, Singh clarified that the party won’t rely on Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF to win minority votes. Cracks evolved between Congress and AIUDF after the 2021 assembly election after the Congress-AIUDF led opposition alliance had to bite the dust.