Sang woos AGP, state Congmen join NCP

“My talks with Phukan and Bora however are still at the preliminary stage, and I hope to meet them again in the near future,” said Sangma, who did not rule out chances of some AGP members joining his party.

A large number of political workers of different parties joined the NCP here during the past three days, which also included former AGP minister (of the 1985-90 term), Pradip Kumar Gogoi. Others included mostly minority leaders of the Congress, like former NSUI president Khalilur Rahman, former city committee treasurer of Congress Samsher Ali Sheikh and others.

Sangma, in his attempt to attract AGP members, meanwhile claimed that according to his assessment, the people of Assam were fed up with the style of functioning of the Mahanta government. He also ruled out chances of the NCP seeking an ally in the AGP, by claiming that he had said “enough” speaking about the AGP’s performance.

The NCP meanwhile has fixed July 24 as the date for the party to launch its election campaign in the north-east, when Sharad Pawar, Tariq Anwar and Sangma would address a rally here and announce the party’s manifesto for the region.

The former Lok Sabha speaker also revealed that he had had preliminary talks with Autonomous State Demand Committee leader Jayanta Rongpi and United Minorities’ Front secretary Hafij Rashid Choudhury too.

“We are trying to look for more friends all over the country, but one thing is for sure, the NCP is not going to contest in all the Lok Sabha seats just for the sake of contesting,” Sangma added.