Assam, April 18: The Congress has booked a few hotels across Assam to “insulate” its candidates from possible poaching by the BJP ahead of the declaration of Assam Assembly elections results on May 2, party sources said.
The Congress leaders met at a hotel in Guwahati for a closed-door meeting with their candidates.
Sources said that the party has been planning to keep the candidates somewhere in Guwahati, Tezpur, and Kaziranga on April 22.
Also Read: Another Assam Mahajot ally, BPF, moves candidates to “Safe Location”: Source
However, senior Congress leader Jitendra Singh dismissed the reports of hotels booking and said that their alliance will “get a big majority”.
“Our candidates are not going anywhere. We just gave them some directions to the party candidates for the preparations of counting days because of past experiences,” said Singh.
At least two Congress allies – Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) – had earlier shifted their candidates out of state amid fears of poaching. The candidates of All India United Democratic Front had returned later.
The Congress, which is in power in Rajasthan, has already stowed away three of its candidates to a Jaipur luxury hotel.
Assam, where the BJP came to power in the 2016 election voted for a new government in three phases between March 27 and April 6. The results are due on May 2 along with those for polls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Puducherry.
