GUWAHATI, March 4: Ahead of the state Assembly polls, four leaders from the tea community joined the newly-floated regional party, Assam Jatiya Parishad at the party headquarters here today.
The development, in a way, is a setback for the incumbent BJP, which claims that a majority of voters in the tea constituencies favour the saffron party.
The tea community leaders who joined AJP in the presence of party president Lurinjyoti Gogoi, include Ajay Tanti, central executive member of Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association (ATTSA); Winston Sona, vice-president of Sonitpur district committee (ATTSA), Praloy Hial, ATTSA organisational secretary of the Rangapani unit and Prahlad Tanti, the general secretary of the Sonitpur district committee of All Assam Adivasi Students Association (AAASA).
“The BJP was thinking of buying one crore people from the tea community in Assam for only Rs 3,000; this will be the main reason for their defeat this time,” Tanti claimed, referring to the schemes launched by the BJP-led government recently.