Political equations favour AGP in Assam

GUWAHATI, MAY 19: With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, political equations in Assam are beginning to change, with initial analy...

GUWAHATI, MAY 19: With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, political equations in Assam are beginning to change, with initial analyses showing a slight tilt in favour of the ruling Asom Gana Parishad (AGP).

The United Minorities Front (UMF), a Congress ally in the 1998 elections, for instance, is on the verge of a split, with one faction inching closer to the AGP.

The UMF, which was allotted one seat out of the State’s 14 by the Congress (which it had won), had helped the Congress secure as much as 43.47 per cent of the votes last year.

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But this time around, the UMF leaders have asked for more seats, which the Congress is in no mood to part with, leading to it moving closer to the AGP.

The party was formed by a section of minority Congress leaders in the wake of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi signing the Assam Accord in 1985.

There is also talk here that chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta might go in for expansion of his ministry and accommodate at least one UMF member as minister, soas to weaken the Congress ally further.

The AGP could not win even one seat during the 1998 elections, and had, in alliance with the Communist Party of India, CPI (Marxist) and the United People’s Party of Assam (UPPA) polled just 16.93 per cent of the votes.

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Although the BJP won only one seat, it polled 24.23 per cent of the votes, apart from emerging a close second in as many as eight seats. While the AGP stood second in three seats, the Congress secured the second position in two seats.

Bodo political groups are also in the process of splitting. One group of the People’s Democratic Front is moving closer to the AGP. According to Mahanta, the AGP is also trying to revive its alliance with the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC), whose leader, Jayanta Rongpi, has been holding the autonomous district seat for three consecutive terms.