Gaurav and Rakibul have given voters every reason not to elect Congress on April 9

I am writing this with a heavy heart and a deep sense of betrayal. I have spent decades in the Indian National Congress, through its years of power under Tarun Gogoi, through the humiliation of 2016, through the long wilderness of opposition. I stayed when others left. I held the flag when holding it invited ridicule. I believed that a party with the Congress’s history and values would, sooner or later, find its way back. Today, less than a month before Assam goes to the polls, I am no longer sure the party wants to find its way back. I am not happy. I am very upset. And I owe it to the workers who have stood with us—not to the leadership that has abandoned them—to say why.

Let me begin with what everyone in Assam’s political circles knows, but few dare to say openly: the ticket distribution process for this election has been a disgrace. PCC President Gaurav Gogoi and AICC in-charge of Assam Jitendra Singh have turned candidate selection into a money game. Tickets are being sold, not earned. Loyalists who bled for this party, who kept the organisation alive at the booth level when every incentive pointed towards defection, have been cast aside. In their place, we are getting “new faces” and “youth leaders” whose primary qualification is proximity to the leadership, or, worse, the ability to pay.

I will give you names, because vague accusations serve no one.

Take Tinsukia. Dandi Sonowal is a former senior member of the Sonowal Autonomous Council. He held important posts in the council for years. He is a Congress loyalist of the first order. After the BJP came to power in 2016, more than 20 development council leaders and autonomous council leaders who had been close to Tarun Gogoi switched sides. Every single one of them. Except Dandi Sonowal. He stayed with us through ten years of the most difficult period this party has faced in Assam. And what was his reward? He was denied the ticket. It went instead to Devid Phukan, the Youth Congress Vice President. A young man, yes. Good at rallies, yes. He can work up a crowd. But ask any senior Congress worker in Tinsukia. Phukan is not connected with the booth presidents, the mandal presidents, or the people who actually deliver votes. Our grassroots leaders are apprehensive. And they have every reason to be.

The same story played out in New Guwahati. Kushal Kumar Sarmah, the former mayor of Guwahati Municipal Corporation, was the natural candidate. A mayor is always election-ready. He has the networks, the visibility, the organisational machinery. Sarmah was close to freedom-fighter families in the constituency. He had earned his claim. But Gaurav Gogoi’s buddy Santanu Borah got the ticket instead. His only credential is his closeness to the state president. That is not how you win elections. 
The pattern is not subtle. When our observers conduct surveys and a candidate’s report comes back strong, it reaches Gaurav Gogoi. And then he ignores it. The reasoning is always the same: we are building the party for the future, we need new faces, youth should be given importance. These are fine words. They are also a convenient cover for sidelining people who are not part of his inner circle and rewarding those who are.

Today, Dandi Sonowal has left the party. A man who stood with us in good days and bad, who refused to join the BJP when every tribal leader around him was crossing over. He too, has finally walked away. I cannot blame him. I blame us.
And he is not alone. Praneswar Basumatary, our former MLA from Sootea, has also resigned. This is a man who was instrumental in bringing Gaurav Gogoi to the leadership of the Assam Congress. He was one of the signatories to the high command who helped make Gogoi the state president. And now he has been pushed out. The new candidate from Sootea—I am hearing from multiple sources — was sent by Padma Hazarika. Think about that for a moment. Padma Hazarika is the BJP’s man in that constituency. If our candidate was recommended by the BJP’s own leader, what kind of fight are we putting up? The new man’s visibility is doubtful. He was not even a Congressman. He may win, but the circumstances of his selection tell you everything about what has gone wrong with this party.

Now let me speak about the alliance, or rather, the catastrophic failure to build one.

Akhil Gogoi’s Raijor Dal and the Asom Jatiya Parishad should have been part of a united opposition front. The arithmetic is not complicated. In a state where Himanta has polarised the electorate along communal lines, a fragmented opposition hands him seats on a platter. At the very least, two or three more seats should have been given to Raijor Dal so that we could cut into BJP’s margins in crucial constituencies. Yes, they would have shown some dadagiri—regional parties always do. But politics is about managing egos in the service of a larger goal. Rakibul Hussain and Gaurav Gogoi are the main culprits here. They let personal equations override electoral strategy.

And I must say something about Akhil Gogoi that will not make me popular. Jayanta Khaund, a big businessman, was given the Ronganodi ticket by Rakibul and Gaurav. I’m told by my sources that Khaund paid people in our party for this favour. Seeing this, Akhil should have been on his toes. He should have demanded that seat. Interestingly, he did not. I am surprised. I have my suspicions about why, and I will leave it at that. 

And then there is Badruddin Ajmal and the AIUDF. I do not have proof, but I will tell you what I believe. Himanta wants Ajmal to be successful in certain seats. I demanded that Congress field a candidate from Binakandi in Hojai to fight Ajmal. Our leaders told me we do not have a strong enough contender there. If the Congress, a national party with a hundred-and-forty-year history, cannot find a candidate to fight a regional outfit in one constituency, then we have a serious problem. And the voters will see it.

I have held my tongue for a long time. I believed that raising these issues privately would be enough, that the high command would course-correct, that Gaurav and Rakibul would recognise the damage they are doing. That has not happened. The second candidate list is out. The names are final. The disaffected are leaving. Workers at the grassroots—the people who actually win elections—are demoralised and angry. Every resignation, every defection, every leaked grievance reinforces the narrative that Congress is a sinking ship.

April 9 is less than a month away. I do not know if we can reverse this. What I know is that we owe honesty to the lakhs of Congress workers across Assam who still believe in this party, who have not defected, who have not been bought, who show up at every election because they believe in something larger than any individual leader. They deserve to know that some of us, at least, see what is happening and refuse to be silent about it.

The BJP did not need to destroy the Congress in Assam from the outside. We are doing a perfectly good job of it ourselves. And unless the high command wakes up, not tomorrow, not next week, but today, we will walk into this election as an army at war with its own generals, fighting with one hand tied behind its back, led by people whose judgement is compromised and whose loyalty is, at best, uncertain.

I have said what I needed to say. The voters of Assam will deliver their own verdict on April 9. I only hope the Congress gives them a reason to choose us, because right now, we are giving them every reason not to.

(This column reflects the personal views of a Congress leader and does not represent the position of the India Today Group.)