BREAKING: Raijor Dal-Congress Alliance Breaks Down Before Polls, Confirms Akhil Gogoi

Raijor Dal president and Sivasagar legislator Akhil Gogoi on Sunday termed Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi as "arrogant" and said that the negotiations on seat-sharing between both parties for the upcoming assembly elections in the state had broken down.

Akhil Gogoi confirmed that the negotiations had fallen through as both sides could not come to terms over one particular seat—Dhing. Addressing a press conference today in Kaziranga, he said, "Congress unilaterally released their candidate list. Raijor Dal had sought 13 seats to contest. However, Congress wanted to give us only four seats."

Notably, prominent opposition parties in Assam, including the Congress, Raijor Dal, and the Lurinjyoti Gogoi-led Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), among others, had allied to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government in the state. However, the parties failed to reach an agreement on the seat-sharing formula.

In the meantime, both the Congress and the Raijor Dal released their first set of lists of candidates to contest the elections over the past week. The Congress released its first list of 42 candidates on March 3, which had irked the Raijor Dal, with Akhil Gogoi calling it a "unilateral" decision which was "unfortunate" as negotiations were still underway then.

The following day, the Akhil Gogoi-led party released their own list of 11 candidates, including prominent names like Dr Gyanashree Bora, Azizur Rahman, and Abdur Rashid Mandal.