Oppn’s poor strategy, unplanned campaign led to defeat: Akhil

Guwahati: Raijor Dal chief Akhil Gogoi on Wednesday attributed the opposition alliance’s defeat in the recent assembly elections to their unplanned and haphazard campaign, coupled with the lack of a coherent strategy, to counter BJP’s ‘error-free’ approach and ‘well-graphed strategies’.

Akhil, who secured a second consecutive term from the Sivasagar constituency, said BJP’s organisational discipline and tactical clarity outperformed the opposition at every level. He was in jail when he won the 2021 election from the Sivasagar constituency in connection with a case related to his alleged role in anti-CAA protests in the state that turned violent in 2019.

Speaking to the media, Akhil said, “The key reason behind the crushing defeat of the Congress opposition alliance was their poor approach. BJP worked hard for the last five years, prepared a solid road map and executed strategies after examining everything minutely to win the election. However, the opposition political parties did nothing in the last five years and wasted the valuable time ahead of the elections in meetings and discussions over alliance and seat sharing instead of reaching out to the voters.”

Akhil said not a single leader of the opposition alliance campaigned as aggressively as Himanta Biswa Sarma. “Himanta Biswa Sarma held an aggressive campaign. He went among the public, breaking his security cover, and shook hands, hugged people and clicked selfies. On the contrary, no leader from opposition political parties did that. They did not go that close to the people...,” he said.

He said Congress could not understand the politics BJP played by providing financial assistance to people under various schemes. He added that the opposition alliance lacked a coherent strategy to counter BJP’s politics of polarisation, which they did in the past five years.

Akhil further said Sarma’s allegation linking Gaurav Gogoi to Pakistan affected him psychologically before the elections and that this played a role in the crushing defeat of Gaurav and Congress. “Congress did not have anyone who actually understands politics and can give advice or suggestions to the party,” he added.

Akhil’s electoral battle in Sivasagar was against BJP’s Kushal Dowari and BJP’s ally AGP’s Prodip Hazarika. Akhil defeated Dowari by a margin of over 17,000 votes and Hazarika by more than 71,000 votes.

Besides Akhil, another candidate of his party, Mehboob Muktar, won the election from the Dhing constituency by over 71,000 votes. The party contested in 13 seats.