GUWAHATI, May 19 - Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said he has accepted the verdict of the people of Assam and that the Congress party would play the role of a constructive Opposition in the next five years.
Gogoi, addressing media-persons this afternoon, said that it was never easy to win for the fourth consecutive term.
�I have congratulated Sarbananda Sonowal on the success of his party,� Gogoi said after trends suggested a landslide victory for the BJP and its allies.
He said the reasons for the party�s defeat will be reviewed and worked on.
Meanwhile, senior Congressmen Anil Raza said, �There remains a huge scope for introspection in the party though. We would now act as a vibrant opposition.�
Raza said that the Congress was on the back foot from the day it had announced its candidates� list for the polls. �We made some bad choices for which we have to pay a price,� he said.
Raza said that the party leadership will have to own the responsibility for the defeat as they had ignored dedicated Congressmen over the years.
Criticising AICC general secretary and in-charge of Assam CP Joshi, Raza said Joshi had failed to devote enough time at Rajiv Bhawan here and could not feel the pulse of the workers properly.
Another Congress spokesperson Kishore Bhattacharya said that the Congress party could not weather the anti-incumbency factor at all. �The BJP and its alliance have managed to keep the votes intact unlike in previous terms when the vote bank was divided. As far as Congress party is concerned, we completely misread the situation. Our assessment went completely wrong,� he added.
Meanwhile, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) also accepted the verdict of the people and said the party honours the verdict of the people.
APCC vice president and Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora told this newspaper this evening that the Congress will sit on the Opposition bench as a responsible party as has been mandated by the people. It will keep a close tab on all the issues concerning the State and its people and will play the desired role so that the State�s interests are never affected, he added.
