GUWAHATI, April 6 � Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today claimed that the Congress party would pocket at least 40 to 45 seats in the first phase of election, and exuded confidence that it would get clear mandate from the voters in the 2011 polls.
The first phase of Assembly polls covering 62 Legislative Assembly Constituencies (LACs) ended on April 4.
He also hinted that the party might strike an alliance with the AIUDF post Assembly polls, if required, though he refrained from making any specific comment on the possibility.
Expressing satisfaction over the high percentage voting recorded in the first phase of election, Gogoi told media persons that the people's large-scale participation has shown that peace has come back to Assam.
"I am sure that the high percentage voting would help the Congress party and we would be able to form the Government on our own," the Chief Minister stated.
Flaying the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Gogoi said, �The AGP and the BJP (NDA) during their reign at the State and the Centre respectively had hardly done anything for the people of Assam. And now, their leaders be it Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj or Shatrughan Sinha are criticizing Dr Manmohan Singh's Government, which is unthinkable.�
"The AGP too are leveling corruption charges on us, which I do not rule out totally. There might be corruption and we have referred those cases to the investigating agency. But till now no specific charge could be brought against any of my Ministers unlike in the case of former AGP Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta," Gogoi asserted.
�We have collected a whopping amount of tax during our last ten years tenure, many times more than what the AGP Government had done," Gogoi said, divulging that compare to Mahanta's tenure (1996 to 2001) where the State had collected Rs 4,213.79 crore through tax, the Congress Government in the last ten years of its regime have boosted the State exchequer by Rs 27,129.43 crore.
�As far as the State's share contribution in Central scheme in the Panchayat and Rural Development department in concerned, the AGP Government released an amount of Rs 184.85 crore between 1996 and 2001, whereas the Congress Government in the last ten years contributed Rs 2086.76 crore,� Gogoi pointed out.
He while stating that Assam had received an annual Plan allocation of Rs 1520 crore in 2000-01 when AGP was in power, the allocation scaled several notches after Dr Manmohan Singh took over as the Prime Minister of India.
