Performance up to our expectation: Gogoi

  Notwithstanding the number of seats have come down to seven from 2004 tally of nine, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is satisfied with his party’s performance in the State. With the one seat won by its ally BPF, the number of UPA seats from Asom is eight.
Mr. Gogoi said: “Our performance is up to our expectation, especially when all the major opposition parties came together against the Congress. I did expect two or three seats more, and that is natural. I had promised to the party high command of winning eight seats. If we have faced erosion of votes in some places, we have gained in some other places. If we analyse Assembly segment-wise, it is clear that the percentage of our votes has gone up.”
About BJP, the Chief Minister said that “The saffron party is not at all a threat to the Congress. The party has been rejected at the national level also. The biggest loser in this election is the AGP that lost two of its existing seats and won only one.”
When pointed out that the Congress too lost some of its existing seats, Gogoi said it depends on many factors like selection candidates, style of campaign and anti-incumbency factors that work when a party heads a government for more than one term. “We sniffed our defeat in Silchar and Dhubri seats soon after the election was over,” he said.
On the AUDF extending its support to the Congress, Gogoi said: “I will welcome the move. I am against any alliance with the AUDF, but not against the merger of the party with the Congress.”
 
AUDF spoiled Congress’ party
As speculated, the AUDF factor inflicted a heavy damage on the Congress that had to lose four of its existing seats — Silchar, Dhubri, Tezpur and Guwahati — but managed to wrest two other seats — Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur. While the AUDF made a sudden emergence as a powerful factor by winning the Dhubri seat with a huge margin and fighting a cut-throat battle in the Karimganj seat, the BJP could raise its tally in the State from two to four. The AGP, on the other hand, has proved to be the biggest loser as it lost both of its existing seats and wrested only one seat. Of the 14 seats in the State, the Congress got 7, its ally BPF got one, BJP got four and the AGP and the AUDF got one each.

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