NEW DELHI, May 13 - In what could be bad news for the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the BJP central leadership has sounded out Assam BJP about the possibility of nominating Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan for Rajya Sabha from the State.
A senior leader of the BJP confirmed that party national president Amit Shah has already spoken to the Assam leadership about nominating Paswan, president of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), an alliance partner of the NDA, from one of the two Rajya Sabha seats from Assam that will fall vacant in June.
Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Santiuse Kujur, both from the Congress, are retiring next month and the assumption was that the BJP will keep one seat for itself and give away the second seat to the AGP.
However, sources now say that there has been a change in the scenario as the BJP has already promised Paswan to nominate him from Assam, while it is keeping the second seat for itself with its senior leaders, including Union minister Rajen Gohain, Bijoya Chakravarty and Ramen Deka, among others, vying for it. Several of the sitting MPs, who were denied tickets in the Lok Sabha elections, have approached the RSS to support their candidature, sources revealed.
Sources said that the AGP may have to wait for the 2020 when three more seats would fall vacant when Sanjay Singh, Biswajeet Daimary and Bhubaneswar Kalita retire. Bhubaneswar Kalita is contesting from the Mangaldoi Lok Sabha constituency as the Congress candidate.
The AGP was promised three ministerial berths and a Rajya Sabha seat when the regional party joined the BJP-led NDA alliance in Assam the second time. The AGP is believed to have shortlisted its former Rajya Sabha MP Biren Baishya for renomination to Rajya Sabha.
�The decisions are only with regard to Bihar,� Shah had said, while it was widely reported that Paswan was keen to be NDA�s Rajya Sabha candidate from Assam.
However, in a twist to the tale, the Congress has come out with an alternative plan to form a grouping of the Congress, AGP, AIUDF and BPF to take the second seat from Assam.
When contacted, State Opposition leader Debabrata Saikia said that such a plan is workable because all these parties are opposed to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which the NDA has promised to reintroduce if it comes to power. �The Congress has 25 MLAs, AGP 14, AIUDF 13 and BPF 12, which works out to 64 and it is enough to grab the second seat,� Saikia said.
Meanwhile, a second regional grouping is also in the process of being formed with elements of various regional parties, including the AGP. A section, which is unhappy with AGP president Atul Bora, is planning to float the new formation under the leadership of former party president and chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, sources said.
Mahanta, however, could not be contacted to confirm the development.
