Congress making baseless allegations against Assam CM to keep itself 'politically' relevant: Baijayant Panda

Congress said, "BJP is engaging in unethical ways of bribing and luring the voters."

His statement comes after Congress asked the Election Commission of India to ban Himanta Biswa Sarma from campaigning for luring and threatening the voters. Congress demanded that a case should be "registered for bribery" and the Chief Minister should be banned from campaigning.

Ahead of the upcoming bypolls in Assam, allegations and counter-allegations between Congress and the BJP have gained momentum.

"This shows Congress desperation and they are petrified because they have done extremely poorly in Assam in all other places and wherever the election had been held in recent years. they are making these wild allegations to try to keep themselves relevant," Panda told ANI after a Congress delegation, led by Assam in-charge Jitendra Singh, met Election Commission (EC) and demanded that Election Commission should take strict action regarding the manner in which voters are being lured and threatened.

Panda added that the party hoped that the Election Commission of India would look into it.

"Our campaign in Assam by the Chief Minister is based entirely on the manifesto that has been published on which our election was fought just a few months ago and those promises have already been fulfilled in Assam. You can see the number of arrests and drugs seizures than a number of actions taken on many different fronts such as illegal encroachers who are not of Indian origin and many such actions," he said.

Taking a jibe at Congress, he said, "Congress has never fulfilled any promises they made to the public. I ask them to look at their own situation in their party they really ought to fix their own problems rather than making such wild allegations," he added.

"We have full faith in the institutions of the nation, the Election Commission of India is highly respected and I am sure they will look at it without such pressure from the Congress," he stated.

Ahead of the upcoming bypolls in Assam, Congress on Monday has alleged that the Sarma government is misusing its power to "crush democracy and the Constitution is being murdered in Assam".

Five constituencies that include Gossaigaon, Bhabanipur, Tamulpur, Mariani and Thowra in Assam will go for bypolls on October 30.The results will be declared on November 2

A total of 31 candidates are in the fray for the elections in which nearly 8 lakh voters will decide the candidates' fate.

A total of 7,96,456 voters are eligible to exercise their right to franchise in the upcoming by-elections to five assembly seats in Assam.

In the last assembly poll in the state, BJP won 60 seats while its ally party AGP won 9 seats and UPPL won 6.Congress won 29 seats, 16 by AIUDF, 4 by BPF, 1 by CPI (M) and one by Independent.(ANI)