Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi during an election campaign in Golaghat district on Friday. Picture by UB Photos

April 1: Two high-profile campaigners today wooed the electorate of Assam with promises, highlighting the achievements of their respective parties and trumpeting the failures of the other.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, on a daylong tour covering three election rallies, lauded the Tarun Gogoi government for bringing peace and development to Assam and lashed out at the AGP and BJP for neglecting the state during their tenures in the state and at the Centre.

Senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, on the other hand, said the Gogoi government in Assam and the UPA government at the Centre had failed on all fronts, price hike, healthcare, education and employment, and had created a record of sorts in corruption.

Saying that development could be achieved if the BJP came to power, he urged the people to give the party a chance in the state to provide a corruption-free and effective government. He praised KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi for unearthing scams in the state.

Advani spoke at two election rallies at Balipara under Rangapara LAC in Sonitpur district and at Melamara Khelpathar in Khumtai in Golaghat district while Sonia addressed rallies at Nilambazar town, 15km from Karimganj town under south Karimganj constituency, at Bokajan in Karbi Anglong district and Dooria in Khumtai.

At Nilambazar, where her chopper landed near a big football ground at 12.15pm, Sonia exhorted the gathering of about 12,000 people to keep in mind the “utter neglect and disdain shown to the voters during their (AGP, BJP) rule” and to re-elect the Congress.

Giving an overview of the development wrought by the Congress-BPF coalition, she said the Congress this time, too, had a single-point agenda of accelerating development programmes launched under Gogoi’s leadership.

Highlighting the emphasis laid on education by the Congress, the UPA chairperson said the party proposed to set up the state’s third engineering college — Barak Valley Engineering College — and a polytechnic institute in Karimganj district. She assured women that they would receive a fair deal from her party if it was returned to power for the third consecutive term and spoke of the betterment of the minority community. She also promised to release a foolproof National Registrar of Citizens this year.

Though she poured scorn on the AGP and the BJP, she significantly refrained from attacking the Opposition AIUDF, which has of late reportedly softened its stand vis-à-vis the Congress.

At Khumtai, where Advani had campaigned hours before Sonia’s chopper landed, she chose the Wikileaks expose to attack Arun Jaitley, though she did not name him, and the BJP. She also referred to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the government scheme to revive tea gardens, issues that resonated with her audience instantly.