Congress confident of winning 101 seats in Assam polls; declares 'govt formation' on May 5

In a big prediction after the completion of two phases of polling in Assam on Friday, Congress exuded confidence in winning 101 seats in the Assembly polls. Speaking to the media on Friday, Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed that the people had rejected the "double engine" government in the State. Mentioning that the Congress-led alliance government will be sworn in on May 5, he added that the implementation of the five guarantees will be cleared in the first Cabinet meeting.

These guarantees are a law to ensure non-implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act, free 200 units of electricity to each household, minimum daily wage of Rs. 365 to tea garden workers, monthly assistance of Rs. 2000 to every homemaker and the generation of 5 lakh jobs in the State. Taking a dig at BJP, Surjewala quoted statistics to claim that the saffron party hasn't won a big mandate in any state barring for Uttar Pradesh since Narendra Modi took oath as the Prime Minister in 2014. The Congress party's assertion comes even as the Mahajot's Tamulpur candidate Rangja Basumatary joined BJP. 

Assam Assembly polls

The 15-year tenure of Tarun Gogoi as the Chief Minister of Assam came to an end in the 2016 Assembly polls with BJP winning 86 seats as against 26 seats won by Congress. In a blow for BJP in the lead-up to the upcoming Assembly election, its ally BPF decided to join the Congress-led alliance. While BJP is contesting 92 seats, it has allocated 26 and 8 seats to Asom Gana Parishad and the United People's Party Liberal respectively.

It has refrained from announcing incumbent CM Sarbananda Sonowal as the CM candidate, leading to speculations that Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma might be another contender for the post. On the other hand, Congress has formed a grand alliance with BPF, AGM, AIUDF, CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML), RJD and JPP. While the voting for the first and second phases has concluded, the polling for the last phase is scheduled for April 6. The polling time has been increased by one hour and there will be 33,530 polling stations. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.