All anti-BJP parties should align with Congress for polls: Assam's Leader of Opposition

Guwahati: Debabrata Saikia, leader of the opposition in the Assam Assembly, today urged all anti-BJP forces of Assam to form a grand alliance with the Congress if they desire to oust the ruling party from power in the ensuing polls in the state.

Commenting on the formation of new regional party `Raijor Dol' by the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS), Saikia observed that while some regional political parties of Assam had become virtually defunct, there are many new ones that have cropped up with the sole intention of ousting the ruling BJP from power.

Extending his best wishes to the newly-formed parties, Saikia cautioned that the BJP will, however, return to power if the anti-BJP forces fail to forge a united front before the 2021 Assembly elections.

Pointing out that the Congress had been fighting elections against the BJP on ideological and policy grounds even before the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, he added that the ideological battle between the Congress and forerunners of the BJP had been continuing since the pre-Independence era.

"he Congress has stood by the people of Assam at crucial junctures. In fact, it was the stiff opposition mounted by the Congress in the Rajya Sabha that prevented the BJP-led Central Government from passing the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 before the Lok Sabha elections of 2019," Saikia said.

Claiming that voters various promises made by the BJP during the Assembly elections of 2016 and Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019 were nothing but a "cynical ploy to garner votes", Saikia added that voters desire that a non-BJP Government should come to power in the Assembly elections of 2021. He further added that no political force can dethrone the BJP in Assam without the assistance of the Congress.

"If these parties truly feel that the BJP is the principal enemy of the people of Assam and their interests, then they should join hands with the Congress and jointly fight the electoral battle of 2021," he added.

Earlier, Congress veteran Tarun Gogoi, echoing a similar sentiment, had exhorted all the anti-BJP parties to join the Congress-led maha gathbandhan, which also features the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).

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