Assam Congress president Ripun Bora on Sunday made an open invitation to BJP’s two allies in the government, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) to initiate the formation of a non-BJP government and offered the outside support.
“We are ready to extend outside support if a non-BJP government is formed. I appeal to Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and BPF leader Hagrama Mohilary to initiate forming a new government and we will give them our outside support. They have their own CM,” The Times Of India quoted Bora as saying.
BJP has 60 members in the 126-member state legislative assembly and the three-party alliance stands to reduce to a minority government if the two regional allies pull out. With Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF on board, AGP and BPF can form the alternative government with the outside support promised by Congress.
For the last few days Congress has been harping on an alternative government in the state taking advantage of the growing dissent against BJP over the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
Congress has also chosen Mahanta over AGP party president Atul Bora, who is a minister, because of his recent hard hitting remarks against the government, the newspaper reported.
Mahanta on Sunday reiterated that the government has not been able to live up to the expectations of the people and said that he himself is a victim of the government’s style of working.
“In my own constituency, all the roads need to be repaired but I have got some lukewarm response from the government, in which my party is a part. On April 4, I went to New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and tell him about the deplorable condition of the roads in my constituency. We have three ministers in the government, but I doubt if they are getting ample scope to work,” Mahanta said.
He added, “I have been seeing from media reports about the move by Congress. I don’t know about Congress, but our party has not discussed this issue.”
Last week senior Congress functionary, Debabrata Saikia, who is also leader of the opposition in the assembly, also signaled the party’s willingness to support a non-BJP government for the sake of saving the Assam Accord of 1985, which was signed between Centre, the state government and organizations that had led the anti-foreigners’ agitation from 1979 to 1985 during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as the PM.