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By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi |
Updated: December 13, 2020 8:56:10 pm
Assam CM Sarbanada Sonowal announced that UPPL chief Pramod Boro will be the new Chief Executive Member in the BTC. (Express File Photo by Vignesh Krishnamoorthy)The Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) election results threw a hung House on Sunday even as the BJP virtually dumped its ally in Assam, the BPF, to join hands with the United Peoples’ Party Liberal (UPPL) and the Gana Suraksha Party (GSP) to jointly form the next council.
The Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), which has three ministers in the Sarbananda Sonowal-led coalition government in Assam, emerged as the single-largest party in the elections, winning 17 seats in the 40-member body.
NDA is committed to serving the people of the Northeast.
I congratulate our ally UPPL and @BJP4Assam for securing a majority in the Assam BTC election, and wish them the very best in fulfilling people’s aspirations.
I thank the people for placing their faith in the NDA.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 13, 2020
The United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) has won 12 seats, the BJP nine, while the Congress and the Gana Suraksha Party (GSP), headed by Lok Sabha MP Naba Sarania, got one each.
“The 40-member new Council will be headed by UPPL chief Promod Boro,” Sonowal told reporters. Boro is the former president of All Bodo Students’ Union and was a signatory of the peace accord earlier this year.
The BTC is an autonomous self-governing body under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, a special provision that allows for greater political autonomy and decentralised governance in certain tribal areas of the Northeast. It has under its jurisdiction four Bodo-inhabited districts of western Assam (Udalguri, Baksa, Chirang and Kokrajhar), together known as the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).
NDA secured a comfortable majority in Assam BTC election.
Congratulations to our ally UPPL, CM @sarbanandsonwal, @himantabiswa, @RanjeetkrDass and @BJP4Assam unit.
I thank people of Assam for their continued faith in PM @narendramodi’s resolve towards a developed North East.
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) December 13, 2020
Shortly after the results, Union Home Minister Amit Shah congratulated the UPPL for winning 12 seats and also termed the party an “ally” in his tweet. “I thank people of Assam for their continued faith in PM Narendra Modi’s resolve towards a developed North East,” he said.
“NDA is committed to serving the people of the Northeast. I congratulate our ally UPPL and BJP Assam for securing a majority in the Assam Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) election,” PM Modi tweeted.
BPF president Hagrama Mohilary said his party repeatedly appealed to the BJP to follow the “coalition” norms and help it to form a “government” in the BTC, but the BJP ignored the pleas, PTI reported. While the BPF and UPPL are considered rivals in the Bodo-dominated areas, there was no pre-poll alliance among other parties as well.
Speaking at a press conference in Kokrajhar, the headquarters of the BTC, Mohilary, who had been the CEM for the past 17 years, said, “Since we are part of the state government in Dispur, I appeal to the BJP to help the BPF to form the government in the BTC. We have not broken the alliance with the BJP and it should follow the coalition.”
The BJP and BPF, along with the AGP, fought the 2016 Assam assembly elections together in which BPF got 12 seats, winning all they had contested.
The election to the Council was held after a fresh Bodo Accord was signed in New Delhi on January 27 by the leaders of all four factions of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB)- then All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) Chief Pramod Boro, then BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
(With PTI inputs)