A day after Congress declared its first list of 42 candidates before the opposition alliance took a final shape, Raijor Dal (RD), one of the regional parties in the proposed opposition alliance, on Wednesday declared its first list of 11 candidates.
The declaration of the RD list did not trigger a major confrontation with Congress, with no overlap of candidate names except for the Margherita seat.
Though RD president Akhil Gogoi’s name was not announced in the first list, he is set to contest from the Sivasagar constituency, which he currently represents in the state assembly.
Congress did not announce any candidate from Sivasagar. Party insiders said this was a clear indication that Congress wanted RD to be in their alliance.
From Margherita, RD fielded youth leader Rahul Chetry, a former student union leader of Dibrugarh University, against Congress nominee Prateek Bordoloi, who is the son of Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi. Pradyut Bordoloi represented the Margherita seat in upper Assam multiple times.
RD president and Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi expressed disappointment over Congress declaring a candidate list when negotiations for a seat-sharing deal were underway between Congress and RD.
The opposition alliance and a seat-sharing deal among Congress, the Left, and 2 other regional parties, AJP and APHLC, was almost final, but talks between RD and Congress remained inconclusive regarding a few seats.
Earlier, in Nov last year itself, Gaurav Gogoi announced that the Congress would go into the polls with AJP, RD, CPI, CPM, CPI(ML) – Liberation, Jatiya Dal-Asom (JDA), and All Party Hill Leaders’ Conference as a united opposition.
RD’s list included candidates in several Congress strongholds, including East Goalpara, Dalgaon, and Dhing. From East Goalpara, RD nominated Abdur Rashid Mandal, who recently left Congress and joined RD. RD also named Azizur Rahman from Dalgaon, Mehboob Muktar from Dhing, Alak Nath from Tezpur, Dulal Chandra Baruah from Sissiborgaon, and Gyanasree Bora from Marioni, among others.
Former Congress leader Romen Chandra Borthakur, who was also with TMC, was given an RD ticket from the Jalukbari seat, which is represented by chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in the assembly.
On Monday, RD working president Bhasco De Saikia said RD submitted a list of 18 seats to Congress and sought just 15 seats.
He claimed Congress agreed to relinquish only 4 seats to RD for a direct contest and proposed a “friendly contest” in another 4. He said if Congress gave 1 more preferred seat to RD, the alliance between the 2 parties could be finalised.
