Cong, BJP belongs to Hindi belt, AGP belongs to Assam — Mahanta

Nagaon, February 1: Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who was re-elected as the Asom Gana Parishad's president for the second t...

Nagaon, February 1: Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who was re-elected as the Asom Gana Parishad’s president for the second time in a row since 1995 said here today that while his party had never compromised on the issue of India’s integrity and sovereignty, it was the Congress which was hobnobbing with the separatist forces.

Addressing a massive rally at the end of the AGP’s four-day fourth convention here today, Mahanta also claimed that while the regional party stood for the interests of Assam, the Congress and BJP could never fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the people.

"The Congress and BJP do not want lasting peace to be restored in Assam, and this has been evident from the activities of the two parties over the years," Mahanta said amid 25,000-strong crowd raising slogans hailing him as the party’s undisputed leader.

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He said that while it was the Congress that had introduced and patronised a culture of corruption in the country, the BJP leaders too have begun indulging in corrupt practices. To drive home his point Mahanta pointed at recent newspaper reports that the state BJP president was involved in a scandal in selection of LPG agencies in Assam.

Mahanta also dismissed reports that the AGP was looking forward to an alliance with the BJP in the forthcoming state assembly elections, and said that such a necessity had never arisen.

"The AGP’s alliance with the CPI and CPI(M) continues, and we are going to the elections with the same alliance that we have today," Mahanta announced, lashing out at the state BJP leaders for spreading rumours that there was likelihood of such an alliance.

Earlier, the AGP also passed a resolution describing the BJP and Congress as communal forces, adding that both these parties were confined only to the Hindi belt and did not represent the non-Hindi areas of the country. The AGP on the other hand was the only party that has been striving for Assam’s development, the resolution said.

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The party also lashed out at the ULFA for taking the state in a backward direction by trying to stall economic development, and put on record the fact that the AGP had to pay a heavy price by taking a bold stand against the militant group.

"We lost a senior leader like pwd minister and party general secretary Nagen Sharma, while at least 30 other party workers were killed by the militants during the past couple of years," Mahanta in his speech said.

Mahanta’s wife: Meanwhile, even as Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was re-elected the AGP’s president for the second consecutive term since 1995, his wife and Rajya Sabha member was elected as one of the eleven vice-presidents of the party. Assam Assembly Speaker Ganesh Kutum and state industries minister Gunin Hazarika too found place among the eleven.

The number of general secretaries on the other hand was raised from four to seven, with state agriculture minister Chandra Mohan Patowari and former union minister Birendra Prasad Baishya being two of the newly-appointed ones.