Assam polls: 'Infiltration, misgovernance' to be BJP-AGP combine's core issues

Formally announcing its tie-up with the Asom Gana Parishad in Assam, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said the assembly election in the key northeastern state will be a contest between ‘all indigenous people’ led by it on one side and the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front on the other.

The AGP, which has ruled the state on its own twice, will play the junior partner and contest 24 seats while the rest 126 will be divided among BJP and three smaller outfits, with the saffron party leading the alliance.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad made the announcement at a press conference in New Delhi and said the ‘massive infiltration’ in the state with the ‘collusion and patronage’ of the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government will be their main poll issue besides freeing the state of ‘corrupt and non-developmental’ rule marked by ‘malgovernance’.

The BJP has already entered into a tie-up with Bodoland People’s Front, which will contest 16 seats, besides two other outfits representing local tribes.

An alliance with the AGP, which is now a much weaker force but retains some influence, will help the BJP, which emerged the largest party in the Lok Sabha poll in 2014, in consolidating Hindu votes in a state where Muslims are more than 30 per cent and back the UDF and the Congress, BJP sources said.

They said the AGP leaders had also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the alliance was sealed.

The BJP-led alliance will come out with a common minimum programme.

“All indigenous and our people are one side and the UDF with the blessings of the Congress on the other,” Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP leader and convener of the state’s Election Management Committee, told the media.

The Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF has emerged as a strong force in the state, drawing its support mostly from Muslims.

Union minister and Assam BJP chief Sarbananda Sonowal, who is the alliance’s chief ministerial candidate, and AGP chief Atul Bora besides BJP general secretary Ram Madhav were also present at the media conference.

The leaders said implementing the Assam accord, under which illegal immigrants are to be identified and deported, will be a priority for the alliance if it is voted to power.

Bora said the previous AGP governments had also ‘failed’ in executing it but added that with the BJP in power at the Centre, they will be able to do it this time.

“BJP has assured us they will do whatever they can to implement the accord,” he said, adding there can be a ‘friendly fight’ between the two parties on a few seats.

Sarma, who had left the Congress to join the BJP along with some MLAs, claimed that the Congress was committed to the accord as it was signed by Rajiv Gandhi but Rahul Gandhi ‘shifted the goalposts’.