New Delhi: Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and senior leader Priyanka Gandhi are set to campaign in Assam where the grand old party is trying hard to take on the BJP.
“Rahul Gandhi will campaign in Jorhat and Dibrugarh in Assam on April 17. Priyanka Gandhi will campaign in Jorhat and in Tripura on April 16,” a senior AICC functionary said.
According to party insiders, the visit of the two senior leaders shows the importance the Congress is attaching to the north-eastern states, particularly BJP-ruled Assam.
In the 2019 national polls, the Congress contested all the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state but could win only three seats, Kaliabor, Naogaon and Barpeta with 35.5 percent vote share.
The BJP contested 10 seats and won 9 with a vote share of 36 percent. BJP ally AGP contested three seats but could not win any seat.
In the 2019 national polls, senior Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi had won from the Kaliabor seat but shifted to Jorhat in 2024 to claim the legacy The Congress is banking on the appeal of former chief minister and his late father Tarun Gogoi who won from the area many times.
In 2019, BJP’s Topon Gogoi had won Jorhat seat by securing 51 percent vote share against Congress’ Sushanta Borgohain who got 43 percent vote share. In 2024, Topon Kumar Gogoi is pitted against Gaurav Gogoi.
In Dibrugarh seat, Congress ally Assam Jatiya Parishad leader Lurinjyoti Gogoi is pitted against BJP’s Sarbananda Sonowal and AAP’s Manoj Dhanowar.
“The people of the state are fed up with the BJP. The INDIA alliance will win this time. I campaigned for alliance candidate in Dibrugarh and party candidates in Kaziranga and Jorhat seats recently and saw huge support from the people,” AICC general secretary in charge of Assam Jitendra Singh told ETV Bharat.
Party insiders said the recent exit of some MLAs will not affect the Congress which is present across the state and is raising the real issues like the anti-CAA sentiment which is strong in the north-eastern state besides the issues of unemployment and price rise.
“These are bread and butter issues and are catching the attention of the voters. Our message is to solve the problems of the state. The response of the people is spontaneous. We are running a strong campaign,” Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah, who is seeking votes for the party nominees across the state, told ETV Bharat.
The Congress is banking on the united opposition forum as a cluster of parties to take on the BJP in the north-eastern state and deliberately distanced from former ally AIUDF which is a major attraction among the Muslim voters. Party managers say the AIUDF acts as an ally to the ruling BJP and ends up dividing the secular votes.
“We are confident that the alliance can take on the ruling BJP and the AIUDF of Badruddin Ajmal. AIUDF stayed with us till the last assembly polls but we decided to part ways as we found that he was playing the BJP’s game. The broad theme of the opposition alliance would be the BJP’s divisive politics which is disrupting the social fabric not only in Assam but in the entire north-eastern region,” said Singh.
