The Congress-led alliance in Assam collapsed on Thursday over “betrayal” by the principal Opposition party over issues related to candidate selection for the bypoll to be held in Behali Assembly constituency on November 13

Within hours of the Congress declaring a BJP turncoat, Jayanta Borah, as its candidate for the Behali seat despite publicly assuring its allies of backing its nominee for the seat, the 16-party Asom Sonmilito Morcha (ASOM) responded by revamping the Opposition bloc by naming a new president in place of PCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah and deciding “to go ahead minus the Congress” and supporting the CPI(ML) candidate Laxmikanta Kurmi in Behali.

Borah was leading the Opposition bloc ASOM, but he had resigned on Tuesday night “unable” to cope with the pressure exerted by the allies to back the CPI(ML) candidate. Once Congress nominated Jayanta Borah, ASOM accepted Borah’s nomination at an emergency meeting in Guwahati on Thursday and decided to move ahead independently.

ASOM general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi told The Telegraph that the Opposition bloc is moving ahead minus the Congress following the latter’s “betrayal and flip-flop” on the Behali candidate issue.

“They assured us after a joint meeting on October 18 that they will back whoever we nominate. We nominated CPIML candidate Bibek Das. They did not accept it on grounds of winnability. They requested us to reconsider. We forwarded three names nominated by the CPI (ML) on Wednesday but there was no response till heard that Jayanta Borah has been nominated. This is betrayal. Moreover, they did not have the courtesy to inform us that they would field their own candidate,” Gogoi, who is the Assam Jatiya Parishad president and a prominent face of the anti-CAA, said.

He added, “We have revamped the ASOM minus the Congress with RS member Ajit Bhuyan as the president in place of PCC president Borah. We will go ahead independently against the BJP and also back CPI(ML) in Behali. We don’t know what Congress is thinking but we all should remember how division of votes hurt the Congress in Haryana. The AAP got only 1.79 per cent votes but it was enough to impact the poll outcome. Each vote matters.”

The ASOM has not yet decided whether they will support the Congress in the other four seats where bypoll will be held on November 13 or whether the door is shut for any alliance with the Congress before the 2026 Assembly polls, he further said.

Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi went all out against the Congress, describing the Congress stand to field its own candidate, as “a historic betrayal” and attributed the development to the ego clash between PCC president Borah and Jorhat MP and deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, who was made in charge of the Behali constituency for the bypoll.

“What has happened is because of the infighting between Borah and Gaurav Gogoi. We don’t know what Gaurav is thinking. The Opposition alliance was forged to defeat the BJP and what has happened will not help our cause,” Gogoi claimed.

Jayanta Borah, who had resigned from the BJP a few days ago, joined the party only on Thursday after his ticket was confirmed. He said that he was in touch with AICC in-charge of Assam Jitendra Singh, Gaurav Gogoi and Bhupen Borah.

Borah said he made the cut because of his grassroots reach as well as Congress’ internal survey.

Borah had finished second from Behali with 23 per cent votes in the 2021 state poll while Das had finished third with 20 per cent votes. The BJP’s Ranjit Dutta had garnered 51 per cent plus votes.