New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party is positioned to secure a decisive victory in the Nagaon Lok Sabha by-election, pushing the Congress party into third place. The outcome has sparked severe criticism from Raijor Dal leader and former ally Akhil Gogoi, who described the defeat in a constituency with a substantial Muslim population as a profound tragedy for all anti-BJP forces in Assam.
Akhil Gogoi asserted that Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi has lost the moral authority to continue leading the state unit and demanded an immediate resignation. Pointing to a sharp decline in minority support, he claimed that the party's vote share among minority communities has plummeted significantly from previous levels.
The friction follows the formal dissolution of ties between the Congress and Raijor Dal in September, after the Congress accused its former partner of repeatedly attacking leadership and breaching alliance principles. Despite the split, Raijor Dal chose not to field a candidate in Nagaon to avoid splitting the opposition vote against communal forces.
The by-election rout highlights deeper electoral vulnerabilities for the Congress in Assam following a difficult showing in the April Assembly elections, where the party secured only 19 of the 126 seats. In the Nagaon contest, the BJP candidate emerged at the front, followed by AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal in second place, leaving the Congress candidate trailing in a distant third position within a traditional stronghold.