India

Akhil Gogoi Calls for Gaurav Gogoi’s Resignation After Nagaon Bypoll Loss

By HT News Desk

The BJP won the Nagaon Lok Sabha by‑election in Assam, pushing the Congress to third place. Raijor Dal chief Akhil Gogoi, a former Congress ally, condemned the result as a “tragedy for Assam’s anti‑BJP forces” and blamed Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi for the party’s poor performance, demanding his immediate resignation. The by‑poll was triggered when a former Congress candidate switched to the BJP in a seat that had previously been held by the Congress. Akhil Gogoi noted that the Congress had won the seat by a margin of 2.5 lakh votes in the last election but now struggled to reach even two lakh votes. He said the minority vote share for Congress fell sharply from 25% to 5%, making the seat effectively minority‑dominated and likely to be won by the BJP. He described the outcome as a historic setback for the Congress and called Gaurav Gogoi’s leadership a failure. Union Home Minister Amit Shah praised the BJP‑led NDA’s performance in the by‑polls in West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry, as well as recent local body polls in Rajasthan and Tripura, saying the results reflected continued public support for the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a rejection of the opposition alliance. Shah accused opposition parties of questioning institutions after electoral defeats and said voters had recognised their “true character.”