7 Opposition parties to contest 2026 Assam assembly polls together: Gaurav

way2barak November 13: The Assam Pradesh Congress and seven other political parties have decided to form an anti-BJP front ahead of the elections to the State’s 126-member Assembly in 2026.

The seven parties are Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), Anchalik Gana Morcha (AGM), Communist Party of India, CPI (Marxist), CPI (Marxist-Leninist), and the All-Party Hill Leaders’ Conference.

“All the parties reached a consensus on forming an anti-BJP alliance to free the people of Assam from the misrule, corruption, and oppression of the current government,” Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president and MP, Gaurav Gogoi, said after a two-hour meeting of the eight parties on Wednesday evening.

He also said the eight parties would meet again to strategise their campaign against the BJP and its allies.

Jitendra Singh, the All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of Assam, said the opposition forces have decided to remove Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma from power in the 2026 State polls.

“We have pledged to form a new people’s government in Assam by uniting against the injustices of the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government,” he said.

The leaders who attended the meeting included MLA Akhil Gogoi of Raijor Dal, MLA Manoranjan Talukdar of CPI(M), Rajya Sabha member Ajit Kumar Bhuyan of AGM, and Lurinjyoti Gogoi of AJP.

The Chief Minister downplayed the development. “Such meetings of opposition parties and subsequent quarrels among themselves were common when Bhupen Kumar Borah was the Assam Congress president. We have been watching this TV serial for the last four and a half years. Now that the elections are around the corner, we will see more such meetings,” he told journalists.

“What is the need to convene a meeting for an alliance? It can also be done over the phone. They hold such meetings from time to time to make news,” the Chief Minister said.

This is the second such attempt to form a Congress-led grand alliance of opposition parties. The Mahajot formed before the 2021 Assembly elections, petered out after a dismal poll performance.