Congress efforts to forge alliance with Raijor Dal did not succeed: Gaurav Gogoi

Gaurav Gogoi, president of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee, said on Wednesday that the party had made sincere attempts to form an electoral alliance with Raijor Dal ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in Assam, but discussions between the two sides did not yield a favourable outcome.

In a post on social media, Gogoi said the Congress had sought to build a united opposition front in line with what it believed to be the aspirations of people in the state, who wanted opposition parties to contest the elections together.

According to him, the party approached the talks with the intention of bringing opposition forces onto a common platform so they could challenge the ruling establishment collectively.

However, despite several rounds of discussions, Gogoi said both sides were unable to create what he described as a “conducive and hopeful environment” necessary to finalise the alliance.

He noted that the primary purpose of any electoral alliance is to maximise the realistic chances of winning seats and strengthening the opposition.

With that objective in mind, he said the Congress entered seat-sharing negotiations with a flexible approach and attempted to move forward through mutual adjustments.

Even so, a number of issues prevented the two parties from shaping the alliance in the manner they had initially hoped.

“As a result, we have decided to take a temporary pause from the process of forming an alliance with Raijor Dal. We will review the matter again in the future,” Gogoi said.

Earlier, Akhil Gogoi, president of Raijor Dal and MLA from Sivasagar, had also indicated that talks between the parties had not reached a final agreement.

He said his party remained interested in building a united opposition platform, but differences over seat-sharing arrangements and political strategies made it difficult to finalise the alliance at this stage.

Political observers believe the pause in discussions could complicate attempts to build a broader opposition coalition in Assam ahead of the next Assembly elections, although both parties have left open the possibility of revisiting cooperation at a later stage.

With IANS inputs