AAP wants its three Lok Sabha candidates to represent INDIA bloc in Assam

Guwahati, Feb 17 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) wants to contest three seats in Assam from the Opposition INDIA bloc in which the party has unilaterally declared its candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Bhaben Choudhury, President of AAP’s Assam unit told IANS, “We have already announced our candidates’ names for three Lok Sabha seats in the state. I have sent a letter to the Assam Congress President Bhupen Borah mentioning that we want to contest the Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Jorhat seats on behalf of the INDIA Opposition bloc.”

According to him, the AAP has a good support base in these three seats and the party would be able to challenge the BJP.

“There are 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam. We have decided to contest only on three seats. I have requested the Congress party to field united Opposition candidates in the rest of the seats,” Choudhury said.

However, according to party sources, the Congress is not keen to give three seats to the AAP in the state. It has already prepared a list of aspiring candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls and sent it to the party high command in the national Capital.

Borah said, “We are in talks with each constituent party of the INDIA bloc. I hope that we can finalise seat share soon.”

Much before the Opposition’s INDIA bloc was formed the Congress in Assam had been successful in bringing together 12 parties to form a unified Opposition forum to take on the BJP’s election machinery in the state under the leadership of Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The joint Opposition forum included Left parties, Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi’s Raijor Dol, former All Assam Students Union (AASU) leader Lurinjyoti Gogoi’s Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP), and others.

However, the joint forum lacks a prominent player in Assam politics, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).

Initially, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP were also not given a place in the Opposition forum. Following the announcement of the INDIA bloc the situation changed and both TMC and AAP became constituents of the Opposition alliance.