BJP did much better in BTC polls when Sonowal was Assam CM, its tally went down under Himanta: Gogoi

Guwahati, Sept 27 (PTI) Claiming that the BTC election result was a rejection of the BJP government, Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi on Saturday said the ruling party did much better in 2020 when Sarbananda Sonowal was the CM, with its tally going down under the leadership of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The BPF swept the BTC polls by winning 28 of the 40 seats. On the other hand, the UPPL and the BJP, who had jointly run the administration for the last five years but contested the elections separately, finished far behind with seven and five seats, respectively.

The Congress, which won one seat in the last election, could not open its account this time. The UPPL had bagged 12 seats in the 2020 polls, while the BJP got nine.

"I'm grateful to all the Congress party workers, leaders and supporters who worked hard during the recently concluded BTR elections. The result was a rejection of the BJP government who has been in power at the state and centre for the past ten years," Gogoi said in a post on X "Under Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP's tally has gone down compared to the 2020 BTC election. Former Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal did much better in 2020," he added.

Gogoi, the deputy leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, said BJP ally UPPL has also been weakened significantly.

"This was largely due to the interference and influence of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma," he alleged.

On the poor performance of his party in the elections, Gogoi said the road to revival is always a slow and grinding path.

"Over the past one and a half month the Congress party built the foundation of a grassroots organisation. Our MLAs held meetings at the level of mandals. Our candidates campaigned tirelessly," he said.

"We will continue to work hard in the BTR districts. The road to revival is always a slow and grinding path, but there are no shortcuts to success," he said.

Gogoi congratulated BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary for leading the party to a decisive victory.

The CM earlier said the election results would have been different had the "unfortunate death of Zubeen Garg not happened".

"We refrained from any election-related outreach during the last three days before the polls, and prioritised Zubeen's death over the elections," he said.

Sarma said the BJP lost by very slim margins in some constituencies and would have won at least 10 to 11 seats.

In an apparent attack on Gogoi, he said the people rejected the Congress as they have realised that its leader is "a Pakistani agent". PTI DG DG SOM