Will AGP-BJP alliance materialize?

By our Staff ReporterGUWAHATI, July 4: Of late, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is hobnobbing with both the BJP and the AUDF-CPI-CPM combine. The main regional party of the State cannot hobnob with both BJP and AUDF at the same because the two parties are next to untouchable to each other. At a recent meeting at the Assam Legislative Assembly with Opposition leader Chandra Mohan Patowary and AGP working president Phani Bhushan Choudhury, the AUDF president made it clear in no uncertain terms that if the AGP wanted an electoral understanding with the BJP, the AUDF could not be an ally of the AGP.Even today, the AGP has been maintaining that it has reached no electoral understanding with the BJP as yet, and this statement is indication enough from the regional party to other parties of the State that it has kept all options open for electoral understanding.The anti-Brindabon lobby in the party is more interested to forge an alliance with the BJP in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. These AGP leaders, at the same time, want to maintain a cordial understanding with the AUDF-CPI-CPM combine with the one-point agenda that all the opposition parties — AGP, BJP, AUDF and the Left — have the common anti-Congress stand.AGP president Brindabon Goswami, on the other hand, is yet to come out of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA). Meanwhile, when asked on the possible AGP-BJP poll understanding, AGPLP leader Chnadra Mohan Patowary, who is camping in New Delhi, said: “We have had talks with BJP president Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj earlier. But this Delhi tour is purely personal. We have kept all options open to defeat the Congress.”The Congress is apprehensive of the fact that if the AGP-BJP understanding becomes a reality in Asom, the combine will get maximum advantage. According to sources, the AGP is waiting for the reports to be submitted by its 11 party committees that were formed in as many parliamentary constituencies to look into the matter of poll alliance with other parties.Both AGP and BJP sources maintain that unofficial talks for poll alliance are going on between them
AGP, BJP meetFrom a CorrespondentNEW DELHI, July 4: Six AGP leaders today met BJP leader Sushma Swaraj at her residence in New Delhi today on electoral understanding between the two parties in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. This development came close on the heels of another UNPA member party SP extending its support to the UPA Government at the Centre on the Indo-US nuclear deal.After the meeting, MP Arun Kumar Sarma said: “The six-member election committee of the AGP had its first meet with the BJP for electoral alliance. We need to hold more such meetings to sort out the issues.” The AGP team comprised Arun Sarma, Kumar Dipak Das, Sarbananda Sonowal, Padma Hazarika, Birendra Prasad Baishya and Chandra Mohan Patowary.Sushma Swaraj, on the other hand, said the BJP is going to forge alliances with other parties in all the north-eastern States to defeat the Congress. source: sentinel assam