Senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Saturday said his party will be contesting the Assam Assembly elections not only to stop the BJP from getting a second term but also to expand the party’s footprints.

The Election Commission on Friday announced a three-phase polls for Assam to be held on March 27 (47 seats spanning 12 districts), April 1 (39 seats in 13 districts) and April 6 (40 in 12 districts). Counting will take place on May 2.

Tejashwi, whose spirited campaign saw the Opposition’s Grand Alliance give a tough fight to the ruling JD(U)-BJP alliance in last year’s Bihar state polls, reached Guwahati on Friday evening. After visiting the Bhupen Hazarika memorial soon after landing, he met state Congress chief Ripun Bora. On Saturday, he met AIUDF leader Badruddin Ajmal and Ajit Bhuyan of the Anchalik Gana Morcha.

The leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly said the RJD wants to contest the Assembly elections “because” Assam was an important state, the “gateway” to the northeast, and it was “our” duty to raise the issues of the state and stand by it.

Another objective to jump into the poll fray was to expand its footprints across India. “RJD was national party... and now we want to expand our organisation. As a political party we have to expand. To expand we have to participate in polls. We have spoken to Congress, which is our natural ally. We are also talking to the AIUDF and other smaller parties,” Tejashwi said.

He is banking on the huge population of Hindi-speaking population from Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh who are influential in “eleven” of the 126 Assembly seats in the state.

However, he made it clear that contesting will depend on various factors such as winnability.

“We will not do anything that will spoil the prospects of like-minded parties like the Congress and the AIUDF. Winnability will be an important factor while contesting,” he said.

The RJD has no “visible base” in the state since they are still in the process of building a party structure after launching the Assam unit in 2017.

The RJD has 22 district units in the state but they are “not” full-fledged units, party insiders said. If the RJD contests, the upcoming polls will be their first in the state. The “five per cent” Hindi-speaking population in the state Tejashwi was “banking” on has been mostly backing the BJP since 2014 while a small section is with the Congress and regional forces.

Articulating the “challenge” posed to the Constitution, democracy and institutions under the rule of the “RSS-BJP”, Yadav said that the ruling dispensation would not talk about pressing issues.

“They are only concerned about staying in power. They will talk about Hindu-Muslim,Mandir-Masjid instead of issues such as such as the economy, unemployment, migration, job creation or MSP to farmers. There is a BJP-JD(U) government in Bihar.

“They have destroyed Bihar. Our ideology is secularism. In Assam, we need to stop these communal forces from coming to power. People should be alert against the BJP. Not only Assam, we will also be going to Bengal, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and tell the truth to people. Rest is on the masses. Janta is malik,” Tejashwi said.

The Congress and five others parties have already stitched a six-party grand alliance comprising AIUDF, CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML) and Anchalik Gana Morcha to take on the BJP-AGP-UPPL alliance.

The BPF, which has not yet formally left the BJP-led alliance, is weighing its options but is most likely to go with anti-BJP forces.

The chief electoral office here on Saturday said altogether there are 23186362 voters in the state of which male voters number 11742661, doubtful voters 108596, third gender 442, overseas electors 11 and service voters 62134.

BPF with Cong

The Bodoland People’s Front on Saturday night tweeted its decision to join the Congress-led grand alliance in Assam.

The BPF was an ally of the BJP but their ties nosedived after the latter allied with the UPPL to end the BPF’s 17-year reign of the BTC last year.

A tweet by BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary, shared by senior Congress leaders, said “... We shall no longer maintain friendship or alliance with BJP.”

The BPF has three ministers in the government.