AGP surveying Assam’s mood — to win elections

GUWAHATI - Assam’s main opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is banking on a New Delhi-based firm to come up with a set of suggestions to help it bounce back to power in assembly elections.

The AGP had entrusted an unnamed firm to carry out an exhaustive survey across the length and breadth of Assam to help the party feel the pulse of the voters ahead of next year’s polls.

The exercise was also aimed at helping the leadership know what mistakes it had made in the past, leading to repeated electoral defeats since 2001.

The firm is carrying out the survey. In another months time we hope to get the report, AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary told journalists.

The AGP faced humiliating defeats at the hands of the ruling Congress in 2001 and again in 2006. It also fared poorly in local council elections, besides the 2009 parliamentary polls.

The survey report will help us to analyze the political scene ahead of assembly elections and feel the pulse of the voters, Patowary said.

Elections to the 126-seat legislature are scheduled early next year.

The survey will try and answer issues relating to mistakes the AGP made in the past, expectations of voters, political and other issues the party should take up in the run up to the polls, besides helping the party in shortlisting candidates capable of winning.

For finalizing candidates we will first seek the views of the grassroots workers and match the candidate list from the survey report. This will help us get the right candidates, Patowary said.

The AGP president, however, refused to name the company carrying out the survey.

But all is not well within the AGP, with several senior leaders still sulking. Some are opposed to the snapping of ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

I think the decision to break ties with the BJP was not a good decision and could probably help the Congress, senior AGP leader Atul Bora said.

I am a soldier of the party and would not like to associate myself with the central leadership as I don’t want to become a power centre any more, said Brindaban Goswami, who was unceremoniously ousted as the party chief two years ago.