GUWAHATI, Dec 14 - The Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) is set to witness a major political change tomorrow as a new council headed by the president of United People�s Party Liberal (UPPL) Pramod Boro will be sworn in in a public function in Kokrajhar. The UPPL, which won 12 seats in the 40 member Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), has forged an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Gana Suraksha Party (GSP) to form the new Council.
As the preparations are on for the swearing in ceremony, the Bodoland People�s Front (BPF), which emerged as the single largest party in the elections by winning 17 seats, is planning to move the Court against the decision of the Governor to invite the alliance to form the Council. BPF general secretary Prabin Boro said that the Governor should have first invited the single largest party to form the Council. He said that the BPF is planning to move the Court soon in this regard.
The BPF had been ruling the BTC since its formation in 2003 after the signing of a peace accord between the State and Central Governments and militant outfit Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT). The chief of the BLT, Hagrama Mahilary was sown in as the interim chief of the Council. The first election to the BTC was held in 2005 and Mahilary�s party swept the polls and he became the Chief of the Council. In the next election in 2010 also, the BPF won 31 seats to comfortably retain power. In the last election in 2015, the BPF won 19 seats and its tally increased to 20 after an independent candidate joined the party. It also received the support of independents to form the Council. The 17 year rule of the BPF came to an end this time with the emergence of the UPPL as a major political power.
The UPPL was formed in 2015 and though the party contested the Assembly elections in 2016, it failed to win a single seat, while, the BPF, which contested the polls by forging an alliance with the BJP, won 12 seats. In the last Parliamentary elections also, the UPPL failed to win any seat though it contested two seats.
However, the UPPL started gaining ground after the signing of peace accord with four factions of National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) in January this year and the party got additional teeth when Pramod Boro, who headed the All Bodo Students� Union (ABSU) for eleven years, joined the UPPL and took over as the president of the party immediately after the signing of the peace accord.
