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Padma Hazarika quits AGP, to join BJP

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 27 - The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) today received a setback as senior member and legislator Padma Hazarika resigned from the primary membership of the party.

Meanwhile, AGP president Atul Bora has expressed surprise over the decision by Hazarika to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Talking to The Assam Tribune after resigning from the AGP, Hazarika said that he, along with around 10,000 members of the AGP, would join the BJP on October 30.

Hazarika said that he decided to join the BJP to bring an end to the �misrule� of the Congress in the State. He pointed out that in the last Lok Sabha polls, the people of the State showed that they wanted the BJP as an alternative to the Congress. �To strengthen the hands of the BJP in order to defeat the Congress in the 2016 Assembly polls, I have decided to join the BJP. It is now clear that the people of Assam do not see the AGP as an alternative to the Congress,� Hazarika said.

Hazarika said that though he has decided to join a national party, the interests of Assam and its people would be his main priority. During his tenure as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi had always worked for the interest of the State, and now he is working for the country as a whole. There is no reason to think that a person cannot work in the interest of a State after joining a national party, he said.

Hazarika had joined the AGP in June, 1995 and was elected to the State Assembly from Sootea constituency thrice � in 1996, 2006 and 2011.

Meanwhile, reacting to the resignation of Hazarika , AGP president Atul Bora said that he was surprised. �We joined the AGP at the same time and worked together for years. I extend my best wishes to him, but I still cannot understand why Hazarika decided to join a national party at a time when everyone knows the attitude of the national parties towards Assam, � he added.

Bora said that when reports about the possibility of Hazarika joining the BJP started appearing in the media, the AGP sought a clarification from him and called him for discussion. But today he handed over his resignation letter.

The AGP president claimed that the AGP had always stood by Hazarika. Though the AGP suspended him after the controversy in the last Rajya Sabha polls, he was reinstated in the interest of making the party strong. But all of a sudden he decided to resign from the AGP to join the BJP, Bora pointed out.

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