Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi greeted by supporters in Barpeta district, Assam. (Press Trust of India)
In an apparent bid to counter the rise of BJP in Assam and win back the lost support of minorities in the forthcoming state elections, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi addressed a rally in Barpeta district after a seven kilometer
padhyatra that began from a temple and ended at a mosque.
Hitting at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Gandhi said at a rally yesterday that people of Assam will reject the BJP like Bihar as the PM did not fulfil his Lok Sabha promises.
"People of Bihar listened to Modiji and told him, go back to Delhi," he said, adding "If the Congress workers can relate to the people like in Bihar, Assam will also reject BJP," he said.
With 70 per cent Muslim population, Barpeta in lower Assam, earlier the Congress' bastion, is now a stronghold of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) - the party floated by perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal.
Mr Ajmal's party won six of the eight assembly seats in the 2011 assembly polls.
Congress' big worry is the emergence of the BJP that got nearly 40 per cent of the votes in the Lok Sabha poll.
Facing anti-incumbency after ruling the state for 15 years, this seems to be a toughest election in decades for the Congress.
Apart from seeking a tacit understanding with Mr Ajmal to avoid a split in the Muslim vote, the party is also trying to rope in election strategist, Prashant Kishor whose wife is from Assam.
Mr Kishor emerged as a key architect of the spectacular victory of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav's Grand Alliance in Bihar.
"Prashant Kishore has come here from personal reason and nothing has been finalised," said Congress law maker Gaurav Gogoi, who is also the son of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
According to reports Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a Congress ally, is in talks with Mr Ajmal and other regional leaders like Prafulla Kumar Mahanta of the Asom Gana Parishad to repeat the Bihar victory in Assam.
Elections in Assam may be about 4 months away but the battle for votes has begun.