Jorhat (Assam), Jun 6 (PTI) Deputy leader of Congress in the outgoing Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi on Thursday described the parliamentary election results as an “insurance policy” that the people found against the alleged authoritarian politics of the BJP.
He also claimed that with the BJP failing to secure a majority on its own, its NDA allies would support the opposition INDIA bloc and vote against the saffron party on sensitive matters in Parliament.
“People of India have found (in the election results) an insurance policy against the authoritarian politics of BJP,” Gogoi said in an interview with PTI.
The BJP was cut to size by the people in this election, the three-time Congress MP claimed.
“Prior to this, the BJP with absolute brute majority was able to bulldoze a lot of bills through the Parliament and standing committees. They will no longer be able to do that now, primarily due to two reasons,” he said.
One reason is the BJP has to take the sensitivities of their NDA allies into consideration, Gogoi said.
“Concerns of the people of Andhra Pradesh, concerns of the politics of JD(U) will matter a lot more now. BJP leadership will have to take these into account if they form the government,” the Congress leader said.
“The second feature of the insurance policy is the numbers of the INDIA alliance. We have strong enough opposition in the Lok Sabha to block any bill that violates the spirit of the Constitution, and on contentious issues, we will be able to convince certain allies of BJP to vote with their conscience and defend the Constitution,” he said..
Gogoi, who snatched the Jorhat seat in Assam from the ruling BJP by a margin of 1,44,393 votes, asserted that JD(U) and TDP are not staunch BJP allies.
“Often they have been on the opposite side of BJP and that’s why I think people will have a much more different Parliament than in past 10 years,” he added..
On BJP losing in key seats across the country, Gogoi maintained that people voted with a lot of thought and deliberation on who their local representative should be.
“That is where BJP lost a trick. They were too over-confident, too arrogant and could not feel the pulse of the people,” he said.
Congress was highlighting the issues of the people and was also careful with choice of candidates, he said adding: “I do find that in many seats it was not the candidate or the party, but the people who were fighting on the streets, people were fighting the elections..
On his victory from Jorhat, a seat from where he contested for the first time after his previous Koliabor constituency was rechristened as Kaziranga in the delimitation process, Gogoi said it was a victory of the people of Jorhat.
“I give all credit to them. We had one of the highest turnouts here,” he said, while also recalling that his father, late Tarun Gogoi, a former three-time Congress chief minister, had won his first election to Lok Sabha from this constituency.
Gogoi also claimed that the Jorhat campaign has given the Congress the ‘template to take on money and muscle power of the BJP’ in the 2026 assembly polls in Assam, as he pointed out that the entire state machinery, including the chief minister and several of his ministers, had extensively campaigned in the constituency and yet, the BJP failed to retain the seat.
On his possible role in the new Lok Sabha, Gogoi said he will remain as a voice of the North East, highlighting problems, concerns, anxieties as well as aspirations of the people of the region..
“There is still a lot of misconception about North East. I feel pained that the rest of India does not understand how bad the situation in Manipur is currently. And therefore, it is my duty to be their voice,” he added.
He also rejected an oft-repeated allegation against him that he had been more vocal about national issues than problems of his constituency or the state..
Calling it a ‘false propaganda by the BJP’, Gogoi maintained that the three Congress MPs from Assam in the outgoing House, including himself, were always highlighting the issues of the state, be it the opposition to CAA, matters of Assam Accord or ST status to six communities. PTI SSG NN NN
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