While the BJP improved its tally in Assam from two seats in 2004 to four this time by tying up with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP),the regional party is trying to find out whether its slide from two to just one seat in this Lok Sabha election was a fallout of its alliance with the saffron party. Both our sitting MPs lost and we managed to win just one seat. But we cant say that we could not win more seats because of our tie-up with the BJP, AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowari said here on Sunday. Patowari,however,admitted that the regional party failed to keep its Muslim voters with it this time. But I dont think it was because we tied up with the BJP. I think it was more because of the emergence of the AUDF, he said. Though Patowari insisted that the alliance with the BJP would continue till the Assembly polls in 2011,despite the present debacle,the issue is likely to generate a major debate in the regional partys central steering committee meeting scheduled to be held in the next few days. We agreed to accept the BJP as the big brother in the Lok Sabha polls and vice-versa in the Assembly polls. And there is no change in this stand, Patowari said. The BJP agreed. There is no change or problem with our alliance. We have agreed to be the junior partner in the Assembly elections of 2011,and we will continue with that stand, said Sudhangshu Mittal,the BJPs observer for Assam and Northeast. While the AGP won one seat after contesting from six,the BJP won four out of the seven it contested. AGPs sitting MPs Arun Kumar Sarma and Sarbananda Sonowal both extremely vocal inside Parliament as well as outside it were defeated by the Congress in Lakhimpur and Dibrugarh,respectively. The only consolation for the regional party came in the form of Joseph Toppo,three-time legislator and a minister in the Prafulla Mahanta government in 1996-2001,who defeated lottery king and controversial Congress MP Mani Kumar Subba in Tezpur. We did not expect that we will win only one seat. We will soon review the entire situation,including whether we gained or lost from our tie-up with the BJP, Patowari said. In four constituencies,the AGP candidate came second. While sitting MP Arun Kumar Sarma lost to Rani Narah (Congress) in Lakhimpur by 34,016 votes,the other sitting MP Sarbananda Sonowal was defeated by former Union minister Paban Singh Ghatowar (Congress) by 35,395 votes. In Barpeta,Bhupen Roy (AGP) lost to Ismail Hussain (Congress) by 30,429 votes. The most significant loser for the AGP was former industry minister Gunin Hazarika,who lost to chief minister Gogois younger brother and sitting Congress MP Dip Gogoi by a margin of over 1.51 lakh votes.
