GUWAHATI: Amid the war of words between allies, BJP and AGP in the run up to the two-phase panchayat polls in Assam, the regional party has turned down speculations of an alleged “understanding” with Opposition Congress.
AGP president, Atul Bora categorically told a section of the media that the regional party can never think of any understanding with Congress, as some from other parties have alleged.
“We would like to reiterate that AGP was formed to defeat the Congress, which was responsible for the deaths of 855 martyrs of the Assam Agitation. Besides, AGP was formed to implement the Assam Accord. Therefore, how can anyone speculate or allege that we have an understanding with Congress,” Bora, a Cabinet minister in the Sarbananda Sonowal-led government, said.
Bora further said that he failed to understand why “national political parties were up in arms against AGP. “If the criticism is from BJP in the morning, it is Congress who are talking against us in afternoon and AIUDF in the evening,” the AGP leader wondered.
Acknowledging that it was a party decision to contest the panchayat elections alone, Bora said, “Yes, we are contesting the polls alone as circumstances demanded that we do so. Moreover, BJP had already announced that it would be contesting alone.”
Taking a dig at the national parties, the AGP president claimed that the regional party has the support of the people. “The people of Assam have realised that national parties have not lived up to their commitments,” he said.
Of late, the ties between the allies have been at a new low, with top BJP leaders not shying from going all guns blazing at AGP and its dependence on the saffron party during the poll campaigns. The AGP president, for his part, had recently threatened that “it does not take long to break a political alliance.”
Bora further speculated that the party’s stand against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, has not gone well with its ally, which wants the proposed legislation to be implemented in the state. “May be our mistake, according to them (BJP), is that we have opposed the Citizenship Amendemnet Bill, 2016, which is why they are criticising us,” he said.
