New Delhi: Assam Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and state cabinet minister, Pijush Hazarika, asserted on Sunday that the Opposition alliance in the state has been pushed onto the defensive following the saffron party's declaration of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing the media, Hazarika said that the vigour within the Opposition alliance in the state has noticeably waned since the BJP unveiled its candidates for Assam on Saturday.
"I've heard that with the announcement of our candidates, the enthusiasm within the Opposition alliance has dwindled. Many had speculated that the Opposition alliance would fade into insignificance, a sentiment we echoed. However, they were actively strategising until yesterday, but now, they've fallen silent," Hazarika said.
Hazarika said that following the BJP's first list announcement, some potential candidates from the Opposition are contemplating changing their constituencies.
"After our candidates were declared, a few of their candidates are considering switching their constituencies. The scenario is such that one wishes to shift from Dibrugarh to Lakhimpur, while another prefers to contest from Sonitpur instead of Lakhimpur," he said.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, criticised the BJP's swift announcement of candidates, highlighting errors in the initial list where certain constituencies were mentioned erroneously.
"The BJP seems to have overlooked the fact that due to delimitation, the Mangaldoi and Kaliabor constituencies no longer exist. They hastily named Kamakhya Prasad Tasa from Kaliabor, which has been renamed Kaziranga post-delimitation. Similarly, instead of Darrang-Udalguri, they mentioned Dilip Saikia from Mangaldoi," Saikia said.
Acknowledging the delay in their own candidate announcements, Saikia assured that the Congress would finalise its candidates within the next week.
"Our Central Election Committee will convene in the coming week to finalise the candidates," he said, urging parties like the Aam Aadmi Party, Trinamool Congress, and Communist Party of India, among others, to collaborate with the Congress in candidate selection to avoid vote division.
While the BJP announced the names of 11 candidates for Assam, reserving three seats for their alliance partners AGP and UPPL, the Opposition alliance is yet to finalise its candidates. However, the AAP has already declared its candidates for Gauhati, Dibrugarh, and Sonitpur.