Date:29/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/29/stories/2008092960811500.htm

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AGP, BJP tie up for Lok Sabha polls

Special Correspondent

GUWAHATI: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday decided to enter into an electoral tie-up for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls and agreed to work in the “best understanding” to defeat the Congress.

A formal decision in this regard was taken at a meeting held here between senior BJP leader L.K. Advani and a five-member AGP delegation led by its president Chandra Mohan Patowary. State BJP president Ramen Deka and other senior leaders were present during the discussion between the two parties.

The decision to formalise the tie-up came hours after Mr. Advani said at a BJP rally here that the two parties, being the major Opposition parties, should work together.

“Tactical in nature”

Emerging from the meeting, Mr. Patowary told The Hindu that the understanding between the two parties would be “tactical in nature” as the BJP was anti-Congress and the regional party had been striving to unite all anti-Congress forces to ensure defeat of the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls.

Mr. Patowary said the AGP impressed upon Mr. Advani the problems of the State such as infiltration, flood and erosion, unemployment and insurgency and urged him to raise these issues in Parliament.

Mr. Advani also held separate meetings with the former Chief Minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, and Bodoland People’s Progressive Front (BPPF) leader Urkhao Gwra Brahma.

Mahanta’s party merger

Mr. Mahanta’s party —AGP (Pragatisheel) has already decided to merge with the AGP on October 14 along with two other regional parties — Trinamool Gana Parishad and the Prabin Deka faction of the Purbanchaliya Loka Parishad.

Both the AGP and the BJP have agreed to leave Kokrajhar seat to the BPPF and the Diphu Lok Sabha seat to another ally of the BJP — the Autonomous State Demand Committee. For the remaining 12 seats, the AGP and the BJP would work out a formula to ensure defeat of the Congress.

The AGP president said that apart from the BJP, his party had been striving for a tie-up with other Opposition parties, the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) and the Left parties. The AUDF and Left parties, however, ruled out any tie-up with the AGP if the regional party entered into any tie-up with the BJP.