The Congress on Tuesday announced candidates for 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam, leaving two for its allies.
Party leader Gaurav Gogoi, whose Kaliabor constituency was scrapped in the delimitation exercise, will fight polls from the Jorhat seat. However, Jorhat is a stronghold for the BJP, which won it in the last two Lok Sabha elections.
It is believed that Gogoi, son of former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, was keen to fight polls from Nagaon, but its sitting Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi had been opposing his candidature and insisted that as he won the seat with a good margin in 2019, he must be fielded again from there.
Meanwhile, AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal has fielded a strong candidate in Nagaon, fuelling the chances of a potential vote division between the opposition parties.
Congress has also dropped sitting Barpeta MP Abdul Khaleque and fielded Deep Bayan instead.
It has also pitted former Assam minister and MLA Rockybul Hussin in Dhubri against Badruddin Ajmal.
Meanwhile, two seats - Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur - were left by Congress for its allies.
Lurinjyoti Gogoi, a former General Secretary of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) may fight from Dibrugarh on behalf of the INDIA bloc while it is not clear who will contest from Lakhimpur.
The BJP has earlier announced that Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will fight polls from the Dibrugarh seat and he had already started campaigning.
If Lurijyoti Gogoi fights against Sonowal, it may become an interesting contest.
This is Assam's first election since the Election Commission conducted a delimitation process only for the state last year, which the opposition parties fiercely criticised, claiming it was done to benefit the ruling BJP.
The state now has nine BJP MPs, three of the Congress, and one of the AIUDF.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has already announced that his party is set to win at least 11 seats in the state this time.
Fall of Congress in Gujarat: Three decades of decline and struggle for relevance
The Congress party was once the dominant political force in Gujarat, shaping the state’s governance since independence. However, over the past 30 years, the party has witnessed a dramatic downfall, losing ground to the BJP’s aggressive electoral strategies, organisational strength, and ideological appeal.
‘Disempowering Muslims’: J&K political parties oppose Waqf (Amendment) Bill
All political parties of J&K, except the BJP, opposed the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, saying that the Bill is intended to disempower Muslims and only target one religion.
Radical group founder wanted in Jaipur serial blast plot apprehended in Ratlam
The Madhya Pradesh Police in Ratlam achieved a significant breakthrough in apprehending Firoz, also known as Sabji, a fugitive implicated in a conspiracy to execute serial blasts aimed at creating panic and terrorising the Rajasthan capital city of Jaipur.
Amit Shah & Akhilesh Yadav’s lighter exchange in LS over party president
Amid the uproar and heated debate between the ruling party and the Opposition over the Waqf Amendment Bill on Wednesday, the Lok Sabha witnessed some lighter moments between Home Minister Amit Shah and SP President Akhilesh Yadav.
Waqf Bill weakens Constitution, defames minorities, divides society: Gaurav Gogoi
As Parliament debated the contentious Waqf Amendment Bill, 2025, on Wednesday, deputy leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi came down heavily on the government.
Bill not linked to religion, it’s prospective and not retrospective: Kiren Rijiju flays naysayers
Union Minister for Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday tore into the Opposition for ‘spreading falsehood’ over the Waqf Amendment Bill and urged the ‘doubters and naysayers’ to refrain from misleading the people on the proposed reforms.
Parliament was being claimed as Waqf property: Rijiju slams UPA for making provisions 'overriding' other laws
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday bashed the previous UPA government for de-notifying 123 properties and handing them over to the Delhi Waqf Board.
Bhopal’s Muslims burst firecrackers in support of Waqf (Amendment) Bill
A large number of Muslims in Madhya Pradesh's capital, Bhopal, burst firecrackers on Wednesday to express their support for the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, which was presented in the Lok Sabha earlier in the day.