No alliance talks with Congress for Assam assembly polls: Raijor Dal
Guwahati (PTI): Assam MLA Akhil Gogoi-led Raijor Dal on Sunday announced that it will not hold any talks with the Congress for an opposition alliance in the upcoming state assembly elections.
In December last year, Congress, CPI(M), Raijor Dal (RD), Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, Jatiya Dal-Asom (JDA) and Karbi Anglong-based All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC) had joined hands to fight the assembly elections from a common platform.
RD, in a statement, levelled a series of allegations against the Congress and its state chief Gaurav Gogoi, accusing them of abandoning the idea of an alliance and cited the recent joint press briefing by four opposition parties, excluding Akhil Gogoi's outfit.
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On Friday, Congress, CPI(M), AJP and APHLC jointly addressed a press conference in Guwahati and announced of launching joint campaign for the assembly elections.
"The Congress broke the alliance with us and sealed it with three other parties on March 6. Why did it break the alliance with us? What was our fault? We have been very open and tolerated all illogical arguments of Congress only for the sake of an alliance," RD said.
It claimed that the Congress wanted an "unconditional surrender" of Raijor Dal, which it did not agree to.
"We only wanted 15 seats and a Common Minimum Programme (CMP). Gaurav Gogoi opposed a CMP. He did not want to give us respect and broke the alliance with his arrogance," the statement said.
The Assam assembly elections for 126 constituencies are expected to take place in April this year. This will be the first assembly election after the delimitation exercise, which was done in 2023.
When asked during a March 6 presser if negotiations with RD and other opposition parties have failed, Gaurav Gogoi had said, "We are sending a clear message that from today, we are coming together. But our doors are open and we are in talks with others as well."
The RD claimed that both the opposition parties had officially met only once to discuss a possible alliance on February 19, and it observed that leaders' "individual interests" are prime in the Congress.
"After the meeting on February 19 failed, we sent a letter next day. But the Congress showed utter disrespect to us and has not replied to it till today. It has hurt our self-respect. That is why, we now believe that it will be impossible for us to take forward the alliance talks with the Congress," it added.
The party also said that it had initially sought 27 seats as its share from the Congress, which termed it "too high".
The RD, accordingly, brought down its demand to 15, but the Congress agreed to give 13 seats only, it added.
"Of those, only four seats were of our own choice. The Congress allowed us a friendly contest in four other seats, while five seats were imposed on us. So practically, we were downgraded to four seats from the initial demand of 27 seats," the statement said.
On March 3, the 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 the 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 MLAs, AIUDF has 15 members and CPI(M) has one MLA. There is one Independent legislator as well.
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KKR defeat LSG via Super Over
Lucknow (PTI): Kolkata Knight Riders edged Lucknow Super Giants via Super Overs in a battle between two bottom-placed teams in the IPL, here on Sunday.
Chasing a modest 156, LSG suffered a batting collapse and managed to tie the contest and take it to Super Over with No. 9 Mohammed Shami striking a last-ball six against a wayward Kartik Tyagi, who leaked 16 runs in the final over.
But Sunil Narine bowled a stunning Super Over conceding just one run and taking two wickets to give KKR an easy target.
Rinku Singh then finished the chase with a boundary off first ball from Prince Yadav.
Earlier the KKR were in deep trouble with 93/7 in 15 overs but Rinku smashed a sensational 83 not out from 51 balls including four sixes in a row in the final over to lift them to 155/7.
Cameron Green (34) was the only other batter to reach double-digit scores as KKR suffered a familiar batting meltdown with Mohsin taking his maiden fifer.
In reply, LSG continued their dismal show with the bat to succumb to their fifth loss in a row.
Brief Scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 155/7; 20 overs (Rinku Singh 83 not out, Cameron Green 34; Mohsin Khan 5/23). Lucknow Super Giants 155/8; 20 overs (Rishabh Pant 42). KKR won via Super Over.
