Gogoi’s hat-trick fails to weave magic this time around

Battling anti-incumbency and age, Tarun Gogoi failed to weave his magic to bring the Congress back to power after creating history earlier with a hat-trick. With once-favourite party colleagues turning into bitter foes, the 80-year-old party veteran waged a lonely battle but could not stem the tide against the Congress. Gogoi’s third term in office was marked by dissidence led by his former blue-eyed boy and powerful politician Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Gogoi on Thursday said he accepted the defeat in the polls with “all humbleness” and congratulated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its CM candidate Sarbananda Sonowal. “We accept the peoples’ verdict with all humbleness. We will play the role of an effective and constructive opposition by serving the people of Assam,” he said.

The Congress veteran termed the BJP’s win as a “grand success”. “People are now expecting a change for development and achche din (good days). They have high hopes from the new government. I wish BJP and Sonowal fulfil those,” Gogoi said.

On the Congress’ performance, he said it was not easy to win for the fourth consecutive term. “I am not disheartened, but of course I am sad and it is natural. Ups and downs are a part of life and I have seen many ups and downs in my political life. People have not left us. We had faced worse defeat than this at the hands of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) after the Assam agitation,” Gogoi said.

“There must have been some deficiencies and mistakes. We will analyse those,” he signed off.