GUWAHATI: A day after
AGP did a volte-face on registering opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, at the meeting of the state cabinet, BJP on Saturday said the alliance with AGP and Bodoland People's Front (
BPF) is intact.
BJP has heaved a sigh of relief beacause of AGP's U-turn as it comes at a time when the saffron party is drawing flak from different organisations across the state over the bill that seeks citizenship to religious minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and
Afghanistan.
Opposition to the bill by AGP has also encouraged
Congress to float a proposal to form an anti-BJP government with the latter's outside support to the regional party and BPF along with All India United Democratic Front. AGP's staying away from registering a protest at the cabinet meeting has come as a vindication that the regional party is not eager to upset the BJP-led coalition government.
"There is no problem with the alliance. Our government is running smoothly. Whatever is being said on the bill by AGP leaders is outside the alliance. It was not formally raised with BJP," said BJP state president Ranjeet Kumar Dass on Saturday. He added that the alliance partners will fight the Lok Sabha election together.
"In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, BJP contested the election alone and got seven out of 14 parliamentary seats. We will increase the seat count by contesting the election in alliance with our partners," said Dass.
BJP insiders, however, said AGP's act on Friday has blunted the regional party's stridency against the bill ahead of the Lok Sabha election. They said AGP's opposition to the bill, along other several civil society groups, did not work in favour of BJP in the run-up to the parliamentary election.
"Now that AGP has not taken any step which would go against the spirit of the alliance at the cabinet meeting, it will rather help all stakeholders in the alliance vis-a-vis the Lok Sabha polls. At least AGP's stridency has been reduced by now," said a BJP source.