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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Consolidating voter base, BJP ties up with AGP for Assam elections
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Consolidating voter base, BJP ties up with AGP for Assam elections

Analysts said the move is a step to consolidate the voter base in the state

Ravi Shankar Prasad. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint Premium
Ravi Shankar Prasad. Photo: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday officially announced its tie-up with Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) ahead of the Assembly elections in Assam in April-May.

Analysts said the move is a step to consolidate the voter base in the state. The BJP has already entered into an alliance with the Bodoland People’s Front and two other local groups representing local tribes.

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 “mal-governance".

The BJP-led alliance will come out with a common minimum programme. AGP, which has ruled the state on its own twice, will contest 24 seats while the rest 126 will be divided among BJP and three other outfits, including the Bodoland People’s Front. Assam has a total of 126 assembly seats.

The election commission is yet to announce the official dates for polls.

“All indigenous and our people are one side and United Democratic Front (UDF) with the blessings of Congress on the other," Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP leader and convener of the state’s election management committee, told reporters.

The state polls are important for the BJP as they come in the backdrop of two consecutive losses in Delhi and Bihar. It fancies its chances in the state as the party managed to secure seven of the 14 seats in the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

The BJP won only five seats out of 126 in the 2011 assembly polls and 10 seats in the previous election in 2006.

In January, the BJP named Sarbananda Sonowal, the Union minister for sports and youth affairs, as the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the assembly elections.

Analysts said that a tie-up with a regional party could help them gain more votes.

“With a regional party, they will be able to pick up more votes, using the local base. Also, after the Bihar elections and the success of the grand alliance, the BJP is going with an alliance of their own," said Mumbai-based political analyst Jai Mrug.

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Published: 04 Mar 2016, 11:18 AM IST
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