AGP-BJP tie-up changes alliance equations in Assam

AGP-BJP tie-up changes alliance equations in Assam
SAMUDRA GUPTA KASHYAP

GUWAHATI, APRIL 3: With the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) finally going for a belated alliance with the BJP in the coming Assembly elections in Assam, the Congress, which for so long was bent on going it alone, has now started looking for allies.

The party, which was supposed to release its complete list of candidates for the elections soon, has put it on hold, waiting for the CPI and CPI(M), two partners of the out-going AGP-led ruling alliance to formally approach it.

With the AGP and BJP becoming allies, the Congress has been compelled to review its future course of action and senior state leadership of the party is currently in New Delhi to get the final list of candidates approved by the party high command, which has finalised some 60 names against 126 seats.

It is also waiting for the AGP and BJP to make a formal announcement of their alliance. Only then will the party declare the names of its allies, sources here said.

The AGP-BJP alliance is seen as a change in the arithmetic that the Congress was trying to work out in the state and its hopes that an anti-incumbency factor will adversely affect the AGP have certainly been dampened if not shattered.

However, one thing is for sure. The minorities will now be more with the Congress than with the AGP-BJP combine. This is because of the fact that both the AGP and BJP are in favour of scrapping the IMDT Act, which is seen by the Congress as a piece of legislation that safeguards the interests of religious minorities, especially those from erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

The two Left parties, which have been with the AGP since the 1996 Assembly elections, have already severed ties with the ruling party following its decision to tie up with the BJP. And while the CPI has started knocking at the doors of the Congress, the CPI(M) is yet to decide its future course of action.

Interestingly, the CPI, with three MLAs in the outgoing Assembly, also had a Cabinet minister in the Mahanta government. Incidentally, Pramod Gogoi, who was Minister for Flood Control in Mahanta's government, has always been critical of the AGP, and has several times in the past threatened to pull out owing to the latter's growing softness towards the BJP.