Ranjeet Kumar Dass
Assam state BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass. File image

After their bitter fight in the panchayat election in Assam with the ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the ruling BJP has now left  it to the AGP to decide whether it is going to remain in the ruling alliance with the BJP or not.

The BJP state president Ranjeet Dass after his meeting with the BJP national president, Amit Shah in New Delhi today, stated that the BJP was not going to tell the AGP directly to leave the alliance in Assam, but would leave it to the AGP to take a decision to leave the alliance.

The state BJP president along with the State BJP Organising Secretary, Phani Sharma submitted a report about the status of the BJP and AGP  ties in Assam  to Amit Shah after  they had attended the party’s  national officer  bearers’ meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.

“The BJP won’t tell AGP to leave the alliance in Assam as it was the BJP which had initiated move to forge an alliance with the AGP before the last Assembly election in the state. However, the AGP should abide by the rules of an alliance. We can’t continue to bear the attack launched on our  leaders by the AGP leaders,” Dass said giving enough indication that the BJP would be happy to see the back of the AGP as  far as the alliance in concerned.

Meanwhile, BJP leader and senior minister in Assam, Dr Himanta Bishwa Sarma stated that the results of panchayat election had proved that it was the AGP  which rode the shoulders of the BJP in the last Assembly election. Sarma called upon the AGP to resort to introspection after the debacle in panchayat election.

Meanwhile, a BJP source informed that the AGP wants Rajya Sabha  berths for two of its leaders and another cabinet portfolio in the Sarbananda Sonowal government in Assam and hence the regional party had resorted to belligerence against the BJP during panchayat polls.

The source said that the AGP president Atul Bora’s assertion that the regional party would snap ties with the BJP if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 is passed, did not hold any water.