Guwahati: Even as the efforts were on part of the BJP and the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) for preventing division of anti-Congress votes in the forthcoming Assam Assembly polls by forging alliance with anti-Congress parties, the BJP on Wednesday announced that it would make public its first list of poll candidates in the first week of March.
State BJP spokesman and former Congress minister, Himanta Bishwa Sharma announced here that the saffron party in the process of selection of its party nominees and the first list should be made public in first week of the next month
Regarding pre-poll alliance possibilities involving the BJP, Sharma said while BJP had already entered into pre-poll alliance with Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), it has kept its door open for other like-minded anti-Congress and anti-AIUDF parties to prevent division of anti-Congress votes in the polls.
He said the for the BJP the opponents in the coming election were none other than the ruling Congress and AIUDF.
It bears significance given that there have been mutual moves involving the BJP and the regional AGP which ruled Assam on two occasion since 1985, for forging a pre-poll alliance even as grassroots workers from both the parties have raised banner of revolt against such move.
The AGP has called for its emergency general body meeting at the party’s headquarter here on Wednesday night to decide on poll strategies including that in respect of pre-poll alliance.
The AGP president Atul Bora who said that the general body of the party would have the final say on pre-poll alliance with any other political groups, admitted that there had been informal confabulations with the BJP leadership for an alliance.
“However, the BJP has agreed to leave out very small number of LACs for us in the vent of a pre-poll alliance which doesn’t sound tenable for us given that our party has ruled the state for two occasions so far and still have a strong support base. We can’t forge alliance for the sake of making a few leaders of our party MLAS and ministers,” the AGP chief said adding that the AGP was very much interested in preventing division of anti-Congress votes.
Both the BJP and the AGP apparently are targeting the same anti-Congress vote base in Assam especially in dominant Brahmaputra Valley and sans a pre-poll alliance between the two parties the anti-Cong vote base will sure get divided much to the advantage of Cong.
Both the arties paid the price of not having a solid pre-poll alliance in 2001 Assembly election when the Cong wrested power from the AGP.
