On A feel-good high, the BJP has now decided to fight the Lok Sabha elections alone in Assam, dumping ally Assam Gana Parishad (AGP).The party decision emanates from an in-house assessment that the AGP has become weak and outlived its utility, and that the party should surge ahead and try and make the state polity bi-polar.BJP calculations indicate that in coming Lok Sabha polls too, triangular contests would benefit the party more than straight ones.BJP vice-president Pyarelal Khandelwal, who is in charge of the North-east, confirmed the party decision. ‘‘We are confident of doing well on our own,’’ he told The Indian Express. Our credibility is high and we have of late expanded our base.’’On the contrary, he said: ‘‘The AGP stock among people is low. A product of the anti-foreigner agitation, the AGP has failed to deliver on its promise to evict Bangladeshi infiltrators from Assam.’’The BJP high command had forged an alliance with the AGP in the 2001 assembly polls, ignoring opposition by Union Minister of State Bijoya Chakravarty and then state party president Rajendra Gohain.Assam BJP leaders had argued before the high command that even though the Congress was certain to win, they could get to the second slot by not aligning with the AGP. They had cited the 1999 Lok Sabha figures, when the BJP had won two of the 14 Lok Sabha seats and come in second behind the Congress on nine others. The AGP, on the other hand, had drawn a blank and come close to winning in only two constituencies.In the 2001 Assembly polls, as per their predictions, the alliance had proved disastrous for the BJP. It was allocated only 35 of the 126 seats and forced to put up ‘‘friendly contests’’ with the AGP in 15 others. The incumbency factor, which was very intense against the AGP government led by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, had worked against the BJP, and the party had ended up with barely eight seats.Starting as a party of Bengali Hindus, confined to certain pockets in the Barak valley, the BJP first atttracted Brahmins from among the Assamese. As it strove to acquire a foothold in the Brahmaputra valley, the party made strenuous efforts to rope in the Ahom community. Gohain, BJP MP from Nagaon (an Ahom), was made the state president. The BJP hopes that its demand for repeal of the Illegal Immigrants Detection Tribunal Act (IMDT) and its recent crackdown on ULFA militants, the accord with Bodo militants, inclusion of Bodo language in the Eighth Schedule and special development projects initiated by the Atal Behari Vajpayee Govt for the North-east will work to its advantage.(with Samudra Kashyap in Guwahati)
