Guwahati: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is having dialogue with the leadership of the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to iron out an alliance for the next Assembly polls in Assam to defeat the ruling Congress. The election management committee of the BJP in Assam on Saturday held a crucial meeting with senior AGP leaders for forging an alliance with the regional party. The meeting was attended by the members of the BJP’s election management committee headed by Sarbananda Sonowal, the state BJP president and the Union minister of state for sports and youth affairs. The meeting held in a city hotel was also attended by a few senior leaders of the RSS based in the Northeast. The convenor of the BJP’s election management committee Himanta Bishwa Sharma informed that a poll tie-up with the AGP was likely to be formalised within few days as the talks were in final stage on a list of Assembly seats sought by the AGP. Senior AGP leaders including Ramendra Narayan Kalita, Keshab Mahanta, Kamala Kalita attended the today’s meeting with the BJP leaders.Sources informed that the AGP has submitted a list of 42 legislative Assembly constituencies (LACs) where it wants to field its candidates and has promise to support the BJP candidates in the rest of the constituencies. The state has 126 Assembly segments in total.The BJP initiated the move to have a poll tie-up with the AGP with the main objective to prevent division of anti-Congress votes in all the constituencies.
The BJP and the AGP share a similar vote base among the indigenous communities in the state especially in the dominant Brahmaputra valley area.
Though the AGP is passing through a lean phase as on date and many of its senior leaders have shifted allegiance to the BJP, the regional party still have base in most of the LACs that will suffice to make the contest tougher for the BJP in its efforts to wrest power from the Congress this election. BJP leaders Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta BIshwa Sharma were closely associated with the AGP and its leaders in the earlier phase of their careers. Sonowal who used the head the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), started his political innings by joining the AGP and went on to become an MP from the party before he decided to join the BJP few years back.Similarly, Himanta Bishwa Sharma in the capacity of a leader of the AASU too had worked closely with senior AGP leaders when they were heading the Assam Agitation and then formed the first AFP government in the state after signing of Assam Accord in 1985.
