GUWAHATI: Congress is pinning its hopes on just five of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam , once its strongest political base. Even then, Congress would fare better than it did last time, when it had its worst outing in the state.In 2014, it won just three seats, fighting against the Modi wave that earned BJP its highest ever tally of seven seats in the state. This time, the party can safely bet on only five seats - Kaliabor and Silchar, both of which it won last time, the two minority-dominated constituencies of Barpeta and Dhubri in lower Assam, and Jorhat where the anti-incumbency sentiment is strong. Besides these, Congress thinks it also has a chance in five other seats. But it has given up hope of retaining the Autonomous District seat, comprising the two hill districts of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao.The party will be releasing its candidate list in batches. "The list of candidates for the first five seats going to the polls in the first phase will be released on Friday," Ripun Bora, president of the state unit of Congress, said. The party has decided to re-nominate all its three sitting MPs - Gaurav Gogoi, Sushmita Dev and Biren Singh Engti - but is yet to finalize its 11 remaining candidates.Sources said Congress wants Bhubaneswar Kalita, its chief whip in the Rajya Sabha , to contest the Guwahati seat - considered the state's toughest battleground because of the heterogenous voter base and consistently low voter turnout. Even BJP is undecided on who will fight the seat. The saffron party's sitting MP, octogenarian Bijoya Chakravarty, is unlikely seek re-nomination; she wants the party's strongman Himanta Biswa Sarma to contest the seat. Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi hopes his party will win at least 10 seats. "Congress will benefit from the anti-citizenship bill sentiment, since Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) returned to NDA just nine weeks after walking out of the BJP-led government," he said, adding, "AGP rejoining BJP shows a kind of opportunistic politics which is very rare in the Assamese history. It proves that the three AGP ministers cannot live without power, now that they have tasted power and money."

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