Assam: AAP asks Congress-led Opposition bloc to withdraw their candidates from two Lok Sabha seats

Guwahati: The Assam unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday urged the Congress-led forum of 16 Opposition parties in the state to withdraw candidates from two Lok Sabha constituencies, Sonitpur and Dibrugarh, and support its candidates instead. 

The appeal comes days after the Arvind Kejriwal-led party withdrew its candidate from the Gauhati Lok Sabha seat and extended its support to the Congress candidate, who is being backed by the forum. 

Chief spokesperson of AAP's Assam unit, Anurupa Dekaraja told reporters that the forum should support the AAP candidates as they had a fair chance of winning the two seats against BJP. 

The forum, comprising 16 Opposition parties, already named Lurinjyoti Gogoi of Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP), a regional party, which came into being out of the anti-CAA agitation in 2020.

Gogoi, a former General secretary of All Assam Students' Union, would face Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Dibrugarh. Congress candidates, Mira Borthakur and Prem Lal Gunju have been named candidates of the forum in Guwahati and Sonitpur,  respectively. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP had won in the three seats. 

While Congress candidates have been supported by the forum in 13 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam, it gave the Dibrugarh seat to AJP. But AAP's decision to field its own candidates, despite reservation by the forum, has come as a setback to efforts of Opposition unity against the BJP, which has set a target to win in 13 seats.