Leaving poll loss behind, Congress trying to regain ground in Assam

Assam was a Congress stronghold for 15 years before the BJP came on the scene in 2016 and retained power in 2021 as well. The Congress had decided to take on the BJP big time and had forged a grand alliance comprising perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF and some other parties. But the group failed to click. After the polls, the Congress snapped its alliance with the AIUDF accusing Ajmal’s party of being hand in glove with the BJP, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri

New Delhi: A day after the Congress drew a blank in the Guwahati local body polls, the central leadership played down the results even as a party MP suggested a thorough revamp of the state unit. The BJP was the major winner with 58/60 wards and AAP won two wards against nil for the Congress in the Guwahati local body polls results announced on Sunday.

AICC in-charge of Assam Jitendra Singh told ETV Bharat: “It has happened in the past also. The local polls completely go with the state government. When we were in power, we used to win the local body polls.” Singh further said that the state team was reorganising itself and a couple of new state-wide programmes are in the pipeline to revive the party in the north-eastern state. “We are reorganizing ourselves. We will soon take on the rivals,” said Singh.

Assam was a Congress stronghold for 15 years before the BJP came on the scene in 2016 and retained power in 2021 as well. The Congress had decided to take on the BJP big time and had forged a grand alliance comprising perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF and some other parties. But the group failed to click. After the polls, the Congress snapped its alliance with the AIUDF accusing Ajmal’s party of being hand in glove with the BJP.

When asked if the grand alliance was a bad decision, Singh said, “the state leaders wanted the pact. But Ajmal played like BJP’s B team. As a result, the voters were polarised and benefitted the ruling party. We will expose the AIUDF.” However, bad alliances apart, the state unit has been suffering from infighting as well. Further, the TMC’s West Bengal win fired its aspirations to gain ground in the hill state also.

Since then, Congress lost two key leaders, former Lok Sabha member Sushmita Dev and former state unit chief Ripun Bora to the TMC. Bora interestingly was the Congress nominee for the recent Rajya Sabha polls but switched sides soon after he lost the elections to the upper house of Parliament. Singh discounted the developments saying “TMC is not a factor in Assam” and that the main contest is “between the Congress and the BJP.”

Congress Lok Sabha member from Nowgong parliamentary constituency Pradyut Bordoloi noted he was not happy over the Guwahati local body polls and said the party needed to be revamped in the state. “It is mainly a problem of inertia. We need strong regional leaders. Then there is an image issue as well,” Bordoloi told ETV Bharat, adding “the Congress DNA was strong in the state and the leadership just needed to enthuse the local talent pool and encourage them.”

Like Singh, Bordoloi too played down the presence of TMC in the state saying Mamata Banerjee’s party was importing leaders from the Congress as they knew that the grand old party was a solid training ground for politicians.