AGP snaps ties with BJP

GUWAHATI - The honeymoon between Assam’s main opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is over - the AGP Wednesday made it clear that snapping ties with the saffron party was now a mere formality.

“We are getting pressure from our grassroots level supporters and workers about severing ties with the BJP and a decision to this effect is likely to be taken in our next party general council meeting,” AGP general secretary Atul Bora told journalists here.

The AGP’s reaction came a day after BJP president Nitin Gadkari made a public announcement in Guwahati about having a BJP chief minister in Assam after the 2011 assembly elections.

The BJP and the AGP had an electoral understanding during the 2009 parliamentary elections, although the AGP in recent months was maintaining a distance from the saffron party.

The electoral alliance proved disastrous for the AGP - the regional party won just one of the 14 Lok Sabha seats, while the BJP managed to bag four seats.

The AGP-BJP tie up in the 2001 assembly elections also did not work out with the combine routed by the Congress party.

“We have to work out alliances with smaller regional parties and other like-minded combinations for next year’s assembly polls,” the AGP leader said.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi Wednesday observed that despite cracks in the AGP-BJP alliance, the regional party would have no option but to tie up with the BJP once again.

“Like in the last parliamentary polls, the AGP would once again beg for a tie up with the BJP as the regional party simply has no alternative,” the Congress chief minister said at a press conference.