Guwahati, Mar 28, 2025, IANS

Guwahati, March 28 (IANS) Assam Public Health Engineering Minister Jayanta Mallabaruah on Friday took a jibe at state Congress president Bhupen Borah and said that the opposition leader is set to achieve a "record of defeats" in the Panchayat polls. Minister Mallabaruah told reporters here, "Since Bhupen Borah has become the state president of the Congress party, he has lost all polls. Borah himself lost in many Assembly elections and he is set to mark a record of serial defeats in the polls." The minister asserted that Congress has lost the support of people in the state, and they will suffer a huge loss in the upcoming Panchayat polls also. "People do not like the Congress party at all. They have lost support, and Congress is cut off from the ground. They will lose the next Panchayat elections also. The BJP has mass support among voters and this is our strength." The Panchayat polls will take place in Assam in April. Earlier in November last year, five assembly seats in Assam - Dholai, Behali, Samaguri, Bongaigaon and Sidli went to bypolls as the legislators in these seats were elected to the Lok Sabha in the general elections. The BJP and its allies - Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) - won the above-mentioned Assembly seats. Congress drew a blank in the bypolls despite contesting all five seats that went to by-elections. The opposition party lost its bastion Samaguri Assembly constituency, as Congress heavyweight and Dhubri MP Rakibul Hussain's son, Tanzil Hussain, conceded defeat to BJP's Diplu Ranjan Sarmah. Rakibul Hussain has been representing Samaguri since 2001 and vacated this seat after winning the Lok Sabha. The Congress MP alleged that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma used the administrative machinery to "rig" votes in the Samaguri Assembly seat. He said, "We have not lost in Samaguri. It was CM Sarma who used the vote machinery to capture booths and conducted extensive rigging in different places." Hussain further said: "Chief Minister Sarma now desires to get a section of religious minority votes in the upcoming polls and this tendency may lead to the BJP's debacle in the 2026 Assembly election." "I remember once the AGP went for Muslim votes, ignoring their traditional vote bank. This caused the ousting of AGP from power in the polls," he stated.