Mr Gogoi contested last month’s Assembly election from jail and beat the BJP’s Surabhi Rajkonwar by 11,875 votes

Jailed activist and Raijor Dal President Akhil Gogoi has written a letter from jail to thank the people of Assam’s Sivasagar for electing him as their representative. Mr Gogoi contested last month’s Assembly election from jail and beat the BJP’s Surabhi Rajkonwar by 11,875 votes.

Members of his party held a press conference in Guwahati on Monday to convey his gratitude.

“I express deep gratitude to the people of Assam for supporting me by going against the government. I thank each and every one of those who supported me. I thank the new government and urge them to ensure that everyone should get free vaccines. The government should organise vaccine camps in villages and at panchayat level for the people,” Mr Gogoi wrote in his letter.

“Regionalism has won… those who have humanity (must) support the regionalism and the process of strengthening regionalism has been started in Assam. With a new idea regionalism will come up among the people of Assam,” he added.

Mr Gogoi has been in jail since December 2019, after he staged a sit-in protest against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Mr Gogoi is the President of the Raijor Dal but he contested as an independent candidate.

The Raijor Dal contested the polls with Assam Jatiya Parishad, which was launched by the All Assam Students’ Union and the Asom Jatiyotabadi Chhatra Parishad. The alliance contested 94 seats between them but won just one – Mr Gogoi’s seat.

The ruling BJP has retained power in Assam, registering a comfortable win over the Congress-led opposition. The BJP won 60 seats and its allies – the UPPL and the AGP – won 15 between them.

The Congress won 29 seats. Its allies – Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF, the Bodoland People’s Front and the CPM – won 16, four and one seat, respectively.