JP Nadda tears into Congress' 'opportunistic politics' ahead of Assam Assembly polls

Speaking at a rally in Assam ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls, BJP president JP Nadda accused the Congress party of indulging in opportunistic politics. To buttress his point, he pointed out that Congress was in an alliance with the CPI(M) in West Bengal while fighting against the Left in Kerala. Maintaining that Congress has "no shame", Nadda also lambasted its tie-up with the Indian Union Muslim League in Kerala, influential Furfura Sharif cleric Abbas Siddiqui's Indian Secular Front in West Bengal and Badruddin Ajmal's AIUDF in Assam. The BJP president will release his party's manifesto for the Assembly election in Guwahati on Tuesday. 

BJP chief JP Nadda remarked, "Congress has no shame. In Kerala, they're against CPI(M) while in tandem with CPM in Bengal. They have an alliance with Muslim League in Kerala, Furfura Sharif in Bengal & Badruddin in Assam. Congrees indulges in opportunistic politics: BJP chief JP Nadda."

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 Bodoland People's Front (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.

Meanwhile, the opposition has stitched a strong alliance with Congress, BPF, AGM, AIUDF, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(ML) joining hands. Announcing the dates of the upcoming Assembly polls, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora mentioned that 18.68 crore persons will decide the fate of 824 seats in the aforesaid 4 States and one Union Territory at 2.7 lakh polling stations. 47, 39 and 40 constituencies of Assam will go to the polls on March 27, April 1 and April 6 respectively. While the polling time has been increased by one hour, there will be 33,530 polling stations. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.