Guwahati: Senior Congress leader and leader of opposition in the state assembly, Debabrata Saikia, on Thursday said Congress wanted to contest in 100 seats, while relinquish the remaining 26 to like-minded parties, for the upcoming assembly polls.“I am still hopeful that our like-minded parties will not contest in the seats where Congress will field candidates. Our allies are a little upset about the slight delay in seat sharing, but efforts are on to finalise the opposition unity to defeat BJP,” Saikia said.
The Congress veteran said the party will not interfere in those 26 seats, before adding that nominations were yet to be filed and that he was hopeful of a solid seat-sharing deal coming through.Compounding Congress’s problem, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said BJP and its allies will decide on seat sharing between Feb 15 and 20, with none from the grand old party providing any details about the opposition’s seat-sharing deal.While Congress remains adamant about contesting in 100 seats, Raijor Dal (RD) president Akhil Gogoi recently issued an ultimatum to the grand old party, setting a January 31 deadline, to decide on seat sharing or face them as rivals. CPI state secretary Kanak Gogoi, on Wednesday vowed to announce candidates in 7 seats, with the party looking to fight from Nazira, Saikia’s constituency.Following suit, All-Party Hills Leaders’ Conference president JI Kathar on Wednesday evening announced three possible candidates from the Bokajan, Diphu and Amri constituencies. While Samson Teron and Bikram Hanse will be fielded from Bokajan and Amri respectively, Kathar nominated himself from Diphu, if Congress did not finalise the seat-sharing deal soon.
