"Vote For Strongest Non-BJP Candidate To Save Assam": Jailed Activist Akhil Gogoi. (FILE)
Jailed Assam activist and the president of Raijor Dol, Akhil Gogoi, on Saturday urged people to vote for the strongest non-BJP candidate in every constituency in the upcoming assembly polls in order to save the state, Gogoi is contesting the polls inside jail in Sibasagar constituency.
Mr Gogoi, who is contesting the elections from the Sibsagar constituency, sent from jail an open letter which was read out by Raijor Dol's advisor Dr Sitanath Lahkar at a press conference in Guwahati.
"I am sending this letter from jail to save Assam and its people's future from the anti-democratic BJP," Mr Gogoi said in the letter
Asserting that the future of Assam and its people is "dark under the BJP rule", Mr Gogoi in his letter said, "Assam's future will depend on the people and they have to take the final decision to save the state. If Assam is to be saved, then do not vote for BJP or those in favour of CAA."
Akhil Gogoi had spearheaded 60 indigenous organisations against the Citizenship Amendment Act as the founding president of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and was arrested in 2019 for his role in the protest. He later floated Raijor Dol that pledges to fight the act at a legislative level.
Though it's his first-time contesting elections, Akhil Gogoi in past had done election campaigns since 2013. Ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the Akhil Gogoi-led KMSS had campaigned against the Congress.
In 2016 Assam assembly elections in 2016 and 2019 general elections, Mr Gogoi had asked people not to vote for the BJP.
He said the BJP "have kept me in jail for nearly two years of their five-year term" since it came to power in 2016.
"I am facing extreme mental and physical trauma in jail during this period. Don't know what my future holds but understand that the future of Assam and its people is dark under BJP rule", he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a press release)