2 months after severing ties, AGP comes back into NDA fold
Prabin Kalita | TNN | Updated: Mar 14, 2019, 01:58 ISTHighlights
- As per the new deal, AGP will be given at least three of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam and one of the two Rajya Sabha slots for which polls are due in June
- BJP, it is learnt, has assured AGP of modifications to the Citizenship Bill when it is re-introduced in Parliament
AGP founder-president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said he was not invited for the talks with BJPGUWAHATI: Just two months after it walked out of NDA over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) was back in the alliance after it struck a deal with BJP during a meeting with Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and others that went on well past Tuesday midnight.
As per the deal, AGP will be given at least three of the 14 Lok Sabha seats and one of the two Rajya Sabha slots for which polls are due in June, top sources said. Besides, BJP has assured AGP of modifications to the Citizenship Bill when it is re-introduced in Parliament.
The three AGP ministers, including party president Atul Bora, were back in the cabinet on Wednesday hours after the midnight talks, which were also attended by BJP general secretary Ram Madhav and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. That BJP's leadership had been working on AGP leaders was evident from the fact that the resignations of the three AGP ministers were never forwarded to the governor by Sonowal.
However, there are differences within AGP over its return to the ruling alliance as the party's founder-president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was not invited for the talks with BJP. Mahanta said he had been kept out of the loop entirely, perhaps because he had not been in favour of the coalition.
"I have not been officially informed by my party about realigning with BJP. Going back to BJP is wrong. The grassroots workers of our party never wanted that. The AGP leadership should have convened a general body meeting before making such a big decision," Mahanta said.
In 2001, Mahanta was instrumental in putting together AGP's alliance with BJP for the first time. Before the 2016 Assam assembly election, when BJP and AGP came together again, Mahanta was invited to the meeting that sealed the deal at BJP president Amit Shah's residence in New Delhi.
As per the deal, AGP will be given at least three of the 14 Lok Sabha seats and one of the two Rajya Sabha slots for which polls are due in June, top sources said. Besides, BJP has assured AGP of modifications to the Citizenship Bill when it is re-introduced in Parliament.
The three AGP ministers, including party president Atul Bora, were back in the cabinet on Wednesday hours after the midnight talks, which were also attended by BJP general secretary Ram Madhav and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. That BJP's leadership had been working on AGP leaders was evident from the fact that the resignations of the three AGP ministers were never forwarded to the governor by Sonowal.
However, there are differences within AGP over its return to the ruling alliance as the party's founder-president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was not invited for the talks with BJP. Mahanta said he had been kept out of the loop entirely, perhaps because he had not been in favour of the coalition.
"I have not been officially informed by my party about realigning with BJP. Going back to BJP is wrong. The grassroots workers of our party never wanted that. The AGP leadership should have convened a general body meeting before making such a big decision," Mahanta said.
In 2001, Mahanta was instrumental in putting together AGP's alliance with BJP for the first time. Before the 2016 Assam assembly election, when BJP and AGP came together again, Mahanta was invited to the meeting that sealed the deal at BJP president Amit Shah's residence in New Delhi.
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