MANGALDAI, Dec 11 - The BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary has claimed that in the forthcoming State Assembly elections, the BPF will play a key role in forming the State Government and no political party will be able to form the Government without the support of the BPF. He was addressing a largely- attended public rally at Mudoibori near Mangaldai on Thursday.
He further said �an official delegation of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) led by me recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and submitted a memorandum to the Government of India, demanding tribal status to the Bodos living in Dima Hasao and Karbi Anglong districts, sanctioning an amount of Rs 1000 crore annually for BTC, making arrangements for direct funding to the BTC, upgradation of the CIT at Kokrajhar to a National Institute of Technology (NIT) and increase of the constituencies of BTC from existing 40 to 75 so that the number of constituencies for general caste could be increased up to 15 instead of existing five and similarly the existing constituencies for open category also could be increased up to 15. If the BJP- led Union Government accepts our demand before the ensuing Assembly poll in the State, then only the BPF is ready to extend support to the BJP outside the BTC area�. Mohilary charged the Congress of neglecting development in the BTC due to which the BPF withdrew support from the Congress- led State Government and now it is ready to contest the ensuing Assembly polls alone without any alliance or understanding with any political party.
However, though in his speech, Mohilary appreciated the initiative and cooperation extended by PWD Minister Ajanta Neog for undertaking the development activities in the BTC area, at the same time he criticised the Chief Minister and several other Ministers for not extending any help to the BTC as the BPF had played a key role in their election in 2011.
Former AASU president and general secretary of the BPF, Prabin Boro said that the Bodos too have the equal right to be called �Asomiya� and people should never allow any further division in the name of Bodo-non Bodo or in the name of religion. He firmly announced that the BPF will win in all the 16 Assembly constituencies in the BTC area. The president of Bhergaon district Committee of the BPF and a former legislator and candidate for Kalaigaon LAC Maheswar Boro and the Executive Member of BTC for Transport and Soil Conservation Jagadish Sarkar also addressed the meeting and made an appeal to the people to maintain the traditional peace and communal harmony among all the ethnic groups, castes and religion as certain evil elements were conspiring to create unrest ahead of the Assembly polls.
