Guwahati, March 11 Assam Congress President Gaurav Gogoi announced on Wednesday a "pause" in talks with Raijor Dal, days after the regional party withdrew from discussions with the ruling party to form a common platform.
In a post on Facebook, Gogoi said that the Congress wanted to form an alliance with Raijor Dal (RD) in order to contest the upcoming Assam Assembly elections as a united opposition.
"Unfortunately, despite many efforts, we have not been able to create a favorable and promising environment for the alliance with the Raijor Dal, as the people of Assam want," he added.
Gogoi said that the first goal of electoral alliances is to pay special attention to the realistic aspect of the chances of winning seats.
"With this in mind, we took the matter forward through give-and-take of seats from a broad perspective," he added.
However, the Congress party has not been able to develop the issue of alliance between the two opposition parties in the way the people want, Gogoi said.
"Therefore, I am taking a break from the issue of alliance with Raijor Dal for a while. We will revisit this issue in the coming period," he added.
On Sunday, Assam MLA Akhil Gogoi-led Raijor Dal announced that it was not going ahead with any talks with Congress for an opposition alliance for the upcoming state assembly elections.
On March 6, Congress, CPI(M), Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC) jointly addressed a press conference in Guwahati and announced the launch of a joint campaign by them for the Assembly elections.
The Assam Assembly elections for 126 constituencies are likely to take place in April this year. This will be the first assembly election after the delimitation exercise, which was done in 2023.
On March 3, Congress took the lead in announcing its first list of 42 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Assam, fielding state party chief Gaurav Gogoi from the Jorhat seat.
A day later, RD declared the first list of 11 candidates. Of them, the Margherita constituency has candidates from both opposition parties.
Presently, the ruling BJP's strength in the 126-member Assam Assembly is 64, while its allies AGP has nine MLAs, UPPL has seven and BPF has three members.
In the opposition camp, the Congress has 26, AIUDF has 15 members, and CPI(M) has one MLA. There is one Independent legislator also.