Assam assembly elections: Congress hopes alliance will help add 20 seats

GUWAHATI: The Congress-led “grand alliance” will first look to consolidate the constituencies where vote division with the AIUDF had cost them in the last assembly election. Party insiders said the number would be about 20 seats.
Even as the seat-sharing agreement is yet to be done, the tussle for tickets between minority leaders of Congress and AIUDF in selected constituencies, especially in lower Assam and Barak Valley districts, may put the alliance in a fix.
Nevertheless, the Congress is planning to take its tally to 50 in the 126-member assembly to play a key role in forming the next government.
In the 2016 assembly polls, the Congress ended with 26 seats, with AIUDF taking away an important share of antiBJP votes. Vote share of Congress slipped from 39.39% in 2011 to 31% in 2016. But, if combined with the AIUDF, which had a vote share of 13% in the last assembly polls, the two parties could manage a better vote share than the BJP-led alliance’s 42% in 2016.
“All we need to do is stop the division of anti-BJP votes in the upcoming assembly elections. In general, it is said we lost 24-25 seats due to disunity among anti-BJP parties. In low margin, Congress lost so many seats. We can gain these as the grand alliance has been finalised,” said senior Congressman and leader of Opposition, Debabrata Saikia.
Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) general secretary Ranjan Bora said the Left support in its strongholds such as Sarbhog in Barpeta, which is represented by state BJP president Ranjeet Dass, is a boost to the Congress-led alliance. However, it’s going to be the AIUDF, which was the major concern for the Congress.
“For AIUDF candidates, Congress lost 12-14 seats directly. Many of their candidates took away 2,000-4,000 votes in constituencies where Congress would have won easily. This division of votes with AIUDF has not hurt us only in lower Assam and Barak Valley but in upper Assam as well, though it was believed that minorities don't play a decisive role in elections here (upper Assam),” Bora said.