Guwahati: Raijor Dal chief and Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi on Wednesday threatened to intensify his indefinite sit-in into a mass agitation if the Assam government fails to respond to his demands for relief and compensation for flood-affected families in Upper Assam by midnight.

Gogoi, whose protest entered its sixth day, said he would wait for the government’s response until midnight before deciding on the next course of action.

“If the Chief Minister does not pay heed, this protest will turn into a mass agitation. My indefinite protest will continue, and we will wait for the government’s response until midnight today. If we do not receive any response, we will intensify the protest from tomorrow,” he said.

Gogoi alleged that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had not given a positive response despite his week-long agitation. He accused the Chief Minister of criticising the protest instead of addressing the concerns of flood-affected people.

Gogoi also referred to Sarma’s recent remarks that he would not support what he described as Gogoi’s attempt to “blackmail” the government.

The Raijor Dal chief said the Chief Minister did not need to support his protest but should support the affected families.

“You do not need to support us. You only need to support the 2 lakh people affected by the floods,” he said, adding that he would immediately withdraw the protest if the government announced full compensation for affected families by October 31.

Gogoi also questioned the government’s assessment of the number of flood-affected families in Sivasagar.

He said an assessment conducted by teachers had identified 55,000 affected families, while government data showed that 5.75 lakh people had been affected in the district. Based on figures from the Disaster Reporting and Information Management System (DRIMS), he claimed that the number of affected families would be around 1.15 lakh.

Gogoi began the indefinite sit-in on October 2 with three key demands: immediate financial assistance of Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 for every family affected by the July 19 floods; compensation of Rs 10 lakh each for affected families and business establishments; and a CBI investigation to identify those responsible for the disaster and initiate action against them.