GUWAHATI, Sept 3 - Regional player Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has chalked out plans to consolidate its organisational base in the State in the run-up to the Panchayat elections and the Lok Sabha polls.
Sources is the regional party said that directions have been issued to party committees at various levels to undertake programmes for mobilising workers as well as to reach out to the electorate.
�While no dates have been finalised yet regarding the Panchayat polls, we expect the State Election Commission to conduct the elections within this year. Our central leadership has directed the party committees at district, constituency, block and booth levels to gird up loins for the Panchayat polls,� said a senior leader of AGP.
He added, �We had earlier held a series of �Satirtha Sabhas� at Assembly constituency level at various places across Assam. The observers appointed for the Satirtha Sabhas have been instructed to review the organisational base of our party at the constituency level and to submit reports to the central leadership at the earliest.�
AGP has also decided to hold such meetings or Satirtha Sabhas in two phases in those Assembly constituency areas which were not covered earlier.
�The party has taken a decision to hold meetings at the Lok Sabha constituency level as the first step in preparing our poll campaign for the 2019 General Elections. We will undertake some activities to strengthen our base in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls,� said the leader.
With regard to the possibility of alliances for the polls, AGP sources said the party would prefer to contest Panchayat polls on its own as local level elections are an opportunity for any political outfit to strengthen its base at the grassroot level.
As for the Lok Sabha polls, no formal discussions regarding formal seat-sharing or alliance has yet been started and things will depend on how talks with the central leadership of BJP goes, sources added.
BJP is the senior constituent of the ruling NDA. AGP is a junior partner in the State Government at Dispur which is led by the BJP.
The regional party will conduct a series of programmes in the run-up to and during the Winter Session of Parliament in protest against the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. AGP sources said the party in keen to tap the sentiment that has sprung up in the State against the proposed legislation.
