Assam News

Assam: Congress to Contest All Five Seats in Upcoming Bypolls

Sentinel Digital Desk

Published:16th Jul, 2024 at 5:52 PM

GUWAHATI: Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah announced that the party will run candidates in all five Assembly seats where by-elections will take place.

He also repeated that the party opposes the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Meanwhile, the state government told its border police to advise non-Muslim illegal immigrants who came into the state before 2015 to apply for citizenship under the new law.

These decisions were made during a meeting led by AICC general secretary Jitendra Singh with district-level party leaders on Monday. This was the first day of Singh's three-day visit, according to Borah.

Singh plans to have more meetings with MPs, MLAs, and other leaders to strengthen the party's organization and plan for the future.

Taking to X, Borah wrote, “@INCAssam would contest all the 5 seats where byelections would be held. We would constitute 5 teams of senior leaders who would reach out to the grassroots.”

The Election Commission is yet to announce the bypoll dates.

The Assembly seats of Samaguri, Behali, Dholai, Sidli, and Bongaigaon became vacant after their representatives were elected to the Lok Sabha. Only the Samaguri seat was held by the Congress, while the rest were held by the BJP and its allies, AGP and BPF.

The party had participated in the last Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections as part of an opposition alliance. However, members of the alliance ended up running candidates against each other in a few seats during the parliamentary elections.

Borah said the meeting also decided to activate the party’s Disciplinary Action Committee (DAC) to resolve all pending disciplinary cases as soon as possible.

He added in his tweet, “We reiterated our opposition to CAA, and reminded ourselves of the commitment made by Shri @RahulGandhi ji to remove CAA after coming to power.”

The party's renewed opposition to the CAA came as the state government instructed its Border Police not to refer cases of non-Muslim illegal immigrants who entered the state before 2015 to the Foreigners Tribunal. Instead, they should advise them to apply for citizenship through the CAA.