GUWAHATI, March 4 � Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is close to striking deals with the Bodoland People's Progressive Front (BPPF) and the Gana Shakti in connection with the ensuing Assembly polls. The Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC), which has a strong mass base in Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao Districts, has also assured an electoral adjustment with the AGP.
This was disclosed by AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary. He was talking to this newspaper here today. The AGP president said that on March 7 his party would be able to make a public announcement in this connection.
Meanwhile, AGP general secretary Jagadish Bhuyan, who is a member of the two-member team of the party that has been holding parleys with the Gana Shakti, said that the discussion with the Gana Shakti on electoral adjustment is progressing in a positive manner. It is expected that the final decision on electoral adjustment between the two parties would be arrived at within a couple of days, Bhuyan said.
The Gana Shakti, which has one MLA in the State Assembly, has sought two seats-Jonai and Majuli in return to its support to the AGP in twenty seats, mainly in the Upper Assam districts. The party could get its nominee Bhubon Pegu returned from Jonai during the 2006 Assembly elections.
Gana Shakti president Ranoj Pegu said that both the parties are near sealing the deal. For, he said, both the parties are very keen to work together in the greater interest of an anti-Congress alliance in the State.
When pointed to the report carried by a section of the print media that some of the AGP stalwarts have been hobnobbing with the leaders of the BJP, a national party with an alleged communal tinge, Pegu said that his party was not bothered as to with whom the AGP is going to ally. The main thing is to build an anti-Congress alliance, he said.
AGP general secretary Ramendra Narayan Kalita, who is a member of the two-member party team that has been holding parleys with the BPPF and the United Democratic People's Front (UDPF), said that a conclusion of the parleys with both the BPPF and the UDPF is expected by tomorrow.
The BPPF is seeking the Assembly seats of Barama in Baksa district, Rangiya in Kamrup district, Kalaigaon in Darrang district, Majbat in Udalguri district and all the seats of Kokrajhar district.
On the other hand, the UDPF is seeking all the seats, except Majbat, of Udalguri district and two seats of Kokrajhar district, Kalita said. He also informed that both the steering and election committees of the AGP are holding their meetings tomorrow.
