GUWAHATI: Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday clarified that he would contest the 2021 assembly elections but would not be the chief ministerial candidate.
Gogoi also said that his son and MP, Gaurav too would not be projected as the chief ministerial candidate.
“Regarding this, Delhi (party high command) will decide after the elections,” the veteran Congress leader told media persons here on Saturday.
On the claim by ruling party minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma that the Opposition party would be restricted to about 35 seats in the Assembly elections, Gogoi said he would quit politics if the proposed grand alliance failed to bag more than 35 seats.
“I have always maintained that we (grand alliance) would win at least 80 seats and form the government,” he claimed.
On the prospects of the Congress in Upper Assam getting hit after such an alliance with AIUDF, he referred to his “Who is Badruddin” one-liner in the run-up to the 2006 Assembly elections, saying, on the contrary, that the party had lost some seats in Sivasagar, Golaghat and Dibrugarh then.
“We should have won more seats then (given that Upper Assam is a belt dominated by an electorate comprising indigenous groups, including tea garden communities). But we lost some seats then,” Gogoi said.
