Guwahati, May 20 (IANS) Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) President Lurinjyoti Gogoi said on Wednesday that the party has begun an extensive review of its poor performance in the recently concluded Assam Assembly elections and is preparing a long-term strategy to strengthen its organisational base and nationalist politics in the state.

Speaking to reporters after a series of internal meetings, Gogoi added that the regional party had carried out a detailed assessment of the election results, including the reasons behind the Opposition alliance’s failure to achieve the expected poll outcome against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“We have conducted extensive discussions and analysis over the last three days regarding the election results. We examined why we could not achieve success despite Opposition unity and why the expected poll results did not come,” the AJP President said.

The AJP had contested 10 seats in alliance with the Congress during the recent state Assembly polls but failed to secure a single victory.

Gogoi himself contested from the Khowang Assembly constituency in Dibrugarh district but lost to the BJP candidate Chakradhar Gogoi.

According to the AJP Chief, the party has identified several organisational weaknesses and challenges that affected its electoral performance.

“One of the major factors was that we could not expand and strengthen our organisation in the way it was required. We need to take our ideology, vision and nationalist principles more effectively to the people,” he said.

Gogoi alleged that opposition parties had to face multiple challenges during the elections, including what he termed the BJP’s “money power, intimidation tactics and beneficiary politics”.

“There were many factors involved — delimitation, Hindu-Muslim political polarisation, money power, inducements and fear tactics. We discussed all these aspects in detail,” he claimed.

Despite the Assembly poll setback, Gogoi asserted that the AJP would continue to pursue its regional nationalist agenda focused on protecting Assam’s language, culture, identity and economic interests.

“We are now preparing both three-year and five-year plans to strengthen the party organisation. We are analysing where our limitations are and how nationalist politics can be expanded further,” he said.

The AJP leader also appealed to the people of Assam to continue supporting and constructively criticising the party.

“We request the people to keep faith in us and continue giving constructive criticism and suggestions. We will not deviate from the ideals of self-respect, self-confidence and Assamese nationalism,” Gogoi said.

He also added that personal political ambitions were not the party’s primary objective and stressed that the larger goal remained the protection of Assam’s national identity, economy, language and culture while ensuring justice and equal rights for all communities in the state.

–IANS

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