GUWAHATI: Former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and senior Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leader has said that the regional party would not stitch an alliance with the BJP for the panchayat polls in the state next month.
“AGP will contest the panchayat elections on its own. The party and its members must work together to win the elections and strengthen the panchayat administration across four stages, from the wards to the zila parishad level,” Mahanta told a section of the media on Monday.
AGP is an ally of the BJP-led state government with three from the party currently serving as ministers.
Apparently, the state BJP has left its doors open for an alliance with the regional party after making the announcement that it would contest the panchayat elections alone.
“We are confident that with the support of the public, our party will do well,” Mahanta said.
The panchayat elections will be conducted in two phases on December 5 and 9 across 26 districts and 14 civil sub-divisions of Assam.
The first phase of the panchayat polls will be held in 16 districts on December 5 while the second phase will be held in 10 districts on December 9, 2018, sources of the Commission announced before the media here last week.
Polling will be held across 23, 505 booths on the two dates announced. Of the total polling booths, 3,665 stations have been identified as “hyper sensitive”.
The date of counting of votes has been fixed as December 12.
A total of 1, 56, 41,456 voters will exercise their franchise out of which 8,12,38,35 are male and 7,51,76,21 are female voters.
The last day to file nomination is November 15. Re-polling will take place on December 7 and December 11.