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The Assam government on Thursday failed to formalise the accord it had reached with the Bodo Liberation Tigers although, according to home ministry sources, the draft of the accord, which gives 'more than the present state of autonomy to the Bodos', is ready.
However, P D Shenoy, special secretary in-charge of the North-east in the ministry of home affairs, was non-committal on the reasons for the failure of the accord to materialise on Thursday.
A senior official in the MHA revealed that the 'compulsion of electoral politics' had forced the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre to invite the BLT, the militant wing of the All Bodo Students Union and a banned outfit, to the negotiating table.
"The BJP plans to fight the assembly polls in alliance with the ABSU, at the expense of the Congress," the MHA official revealed, adding that the requisite groundwork had been completed by both parties.
He indicated that BLT leader U K Bramha had already met Union Home Minister L K Advani to finalise the autonomy package for the Bodos.
With the proposed accord likely to cover the majority of the 300 villages coming under the Bodo Autonomous Council, Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta might have raised objections keeping the ruling Asom Gana Parishad's interests in mind, the MHA official pointed out.
Hence, he had been summoned to Delhi to secure his 'consent for comprehensive autonomy to the Bodos' in his state.
Mahanta has repeatedly told the Centre that the proposed accord would have to be passed in the state assembly and for this, all the parties involved (the BLT, the state government and the Centre) would have to be satisfied with the accord.
The Centre had taken S K Biswamuthiary, the lone Independent Bodo MP (who supports the NDA), into confidence while finalising the accord.
According to a senior BJP general secretary, the party wants to contest six assembly seats, leaving eight others, which fall in Biswamuthiary's Bodo-dominated parliamentary constituency.
The party hopes to win 15 other assembly seats and form the government with the help of the Bodos. The BJP had recently ruled out an alliance with the AGP.
While Mahanta was not available for comment, his senior party colleague Biren Baishya (who was a Union minister in the I K Gujral government) told rediff.com, "Maybe, we will have something to say on Friday."
ALSO SEE BJP high command may tie up with AGP in Assam
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