2 months ago
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GUWAHATI
The last-minute alliance betwixt the Congress and Raijor Dal has made the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contemplate fielding a campaigner successful eastbound Assam’s Sibsagar Assembly constituency.
Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi is seeking re-election from Sibsagar, wherever his presumption got strengthened aft his enactment joined the Congress-led Opposition bloc, which has six governmental parties, including 2 from the Left Front.
Soon aft filing his information papers for the Jalukbari constituency successful Guwahati connected Friday (March 20, 2026), Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the BJP would sermon with state Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) the anticipation of fielding its campaigner successful Sibsagar.
Sibsagar is 1 of the 26 seats the AGP is contesting. The determination enactment declared Prodip Hazarika, who was elected from the delimitation-devoured Amguri constituency successful 2021, arsenic its Sibsagar campaigner connected Thursday (March 19).
‘Not overmuch of impact’
“Things could person been antithetic had their (Congress-Raijor Dal) relationship been [formed] 3 oregon 4 months ago. Their alliance, truthful adjacent to the election, volition not person overmuch of an impact,” Mr. Sarma told journalists.
However, helium felt that a BJP campaigner would beryllium amended placed to decision Mr. Gogoi successful Sibsagar than an AGP candidate. “We whitethorn tract a campaigner there, depending upon however the AGP looks astatine the scenario,” helium said.
The Chief Minister said the BJP’s superior objectives are to unafraid Assam’s individuality and accelerate the improvement enactment undertaken oregon initiated successful the past 5 years. He besides said it was his ngo to bring each Hindu idiosyncratic into the BJP fold.
50% Muslim candidates
None of the 88 candidates the BJP has named is Muslim, but 50% of the AGP’s nominees are. Of the 26 candidates fielded by the AGP, 13 are Muslims. They see 2 Barak Valley MLAs — Karim Uddin Barbhuiya and Zakir Hussain Laskar — who crossed implicit from the Maulana Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).
The AGP’s Muslim candidates are successful minority-dominated constituencies, which the BJP has mostly steered wide of. “More than religion, the anticipation of winning was the origin down the enactment of our candidates,” AGP president Atul Bora said.
The BJP’s different ally, the Bodoland People’s Front, has besides fielded a Muslim among its 11 candidates. He is Rezaul Karim, fielded from the Parbatjhora constituency.
The lone enactment that has fielded much Muslims than the AGP is the AIUDF. The second has fielded candidates for 27 seats, and 24 of them are Muslims, resulting successful a practice of almost 89%.
Meanwhile, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma’s National People’s Party has fielded MLA Mohammed Aminul Islam arsenic 1 of its 3 candidates for the April 9 Assam election. Mr. Islam, who discontinue the AIUDF aft being denied a ticket, is seeking re-nomination from Mankachar seat, which borders Bangladesh.
