UDALGURI, March 20 - �If Hira Sarania as Naba Sarania, a former ULFA leader could be elected to the Lok Sabha as an MP, if BLT chief Hagrama Mohilary could be elected to head the BTC Assembly and if Kushol Duori could be elected, there was no reason for the ULFA to oppose Bhaskar Sharma, a BJP candidate from Margherita LAC in the forthcoming Assembly elections of the State.� This was observed by Prem Tamang, president of the All Assam Gorkha Students� Union (AAGSU) while addressing a mammoth congregation of the Nepali-speaking community comprising students, intellectuals, farmers and businessmen here at Dhansirighat in Udalguri district on Saturday.
Addressing a political convention on the occasion organised by the Udalguri district committee of the students� organisation as the chief guest, Tamang appealed to the extremist outfit to realise its past and present activities and think twice before making comments. Defying the recent appeal of ULFA chief Paresh Baruah to the people of Margherita not to vote for Bhaskar Sharma, who belongs to the Gorkha community, the AAGSU president reasoned that if Naba Sarania and Hagrama Mohilary and Kushal Duori could contest elections and get elected, there were no reason to oppose Bhaskar Sarma, who has been rendering his services to the people of the constituency as a social worker. �If the ULFA alleged Sharma as secret killer and anti-national, it is time for the ULFA to define itself,� Tamang added.
The political convention of the AAGSU, chaired by Rohit Kumar Dahal, president of the Udalguri district committee of the students� organisation also held threadbare discussions on the political, socio-cultural development of the Nepali-speaking population of the State. He said that there was a common view that the nearly 24 lakh Gorkha people of the State have been victimised throughout the ages and have been used as vote banks by cunning political parties, but this time the AAGSU would not sit idle. It will try its level best to create an awareness among its people to take a united decision, particularly during the elections, so that their voice could be heard by the ruling and Opposition parties in the State in the greater interest of the community. The political convention of the AAGSU also held that any political party contesting the Assembly elections this time will have to concede to the demands of the AAGSU for a satellite autonomy and other allied twelve point charter of demands to get the support of the community as a whole.
The political convention was anchored by Purna Kirat Rai, general secretary of the Udalguri district committee of the AAGSU while it was attended by Bharat Chetry, general secretary of the students� union and representatives of Assam Gorkha Sammelan and Asom Nepali Sahitya Sabha.
