AGP at crossroads

At a time when the major political parties of the country have started gearing up for the general elections, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the main opposition party in Assam, is still undecided on possible poll partners and the process of unification of the regional parties also failed to gain momentum. In fact, over the years, the AGP has not been able to make its stand clear on poll alliances and faced elections with parties with varied policies on vital issues concerning the people of the State. The AGP fought the 1996 Assembly polls with electoral understanding with the Left Parties (CPI and CPM), but in the 2001 elections, it made a complete U turn and forged an alliance with the BJP, the policies of which are totally different from those of the Left. Till date, the leaders of the party have not been able to decide with which party they would forge an alliance in the coming Lok Sabha polls and what is more interesting is the fact that the AGP are talking with parties with totally different viewpoints.The AGP is also a constituent of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) and leaders of other constituents of the UNPA campaigned for the AGP in the last State Assembly polls. But with Samajwadi Party, one of the major constituents of the UNPA coming closer to the Congress, the AGP may soon be forced to withdraw from the Alliance soon and the party has already made it very clear that it would not maintain any relation with any party, which supports the Congress. At present, the AGP is also talking with the leaders of the BJP and even with the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF), the parties with different viewpoints on vital issues concerning the people of Assam including on the issue of infiltration of foreign nationals to Assam. The AGP received overwhelming support of the people of Assam at the time of its formation following the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985, but it failed to consolidate the support that it received from the people and the failure of the AGP Governments to implement the Accord and to fulfil the hopes and aspirations of people during its two tenures in office resulted in severe erosion of its support base and personality clashes among the leaders also resulted in divisions in the party ranks. Though efforts are on to reunite the regional parties, the progress remained very slow with all the leaders of the regional groups looking to accommodate their close aides in the executive committee of the AGP and if Lok Sabha elections are announced before schedule, there is every possibility of the AGP getting caught off guard yet again. source: assam tribune