Dhubri, March 10: The AGP today did yet another somersault, ruling out sharing seats with any party in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in the state. Launching the party?s election campaign in Dhubri, party president Brindaban Goswami said the AGP would go it alone.
Goswami had earlier said the AGP would not go in for any alliance with any party but was open to seat-sharing with any like-minded party to prevent the Congress from winning.
Addressing a mammoth gathering at the historical Prabhat Chandra Baruah maidan here, Goswami made the party?s stand clear on repealing the IMDT Act, 1983, saying it has become an instrument of the Congress to woo the voters of the minority community by creating a fear psychosis among them.
?The party favours issuing identity cards to all the people who came to the state before March 25, 1971. This way the problem of 1.9 crore people out of the 2 crore population will be resolved,? he reasoned.
On granting Scheduled Tribe status to the Koch Rajbongshi community of Assam, Goswami said it was the AGP who took the initiative for the inclusion of Koch Rajbongshis in the list of Scheduled Tribes and passed a resolution in the Assembly, having won the support of all other parties.
However, he was not sure whether the Centre would consider the proposal if the NDA constituents did not put pressure on their own leaders. Several times the President had tried to include the community in the Scheduled Tribe list by promulgating an ordinance but things remained a non-starter as far as introducing the bill in Parliament.
While declaring Afzalur Rahman as the party candidate from Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency, Goswami said the Congress has betrayed the people of Assam despite ruling the state for more than 45 years since Independence. This is for the first time that the AGP is putting up its candidates from this constituency hoping in return to create a strong voice at the Centre.
Making a veiled attack on the BJP, Goswami rued that when there was an earthquake in Gujarat and a cyclone in Orissa, the BJP-led government at the Centre rushed to the states with relief and rehabilitation packages worth thousands of crores of rupees. But not even Rs 1 crore was sanctioned for the erosion and flood victims of Assam.
?We opposed and continue to oppose a Congress government by Sonia Gandhi at the Centre. At the same time there is doubt about getting a fair deal from a government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee because there is a long list of deprivation, including New Delhi?s recent attitude on railway jobs,? Goswami said. He opposed the linking of the Brahmaputra with the Ganga, favouring the utilisation of resources for the benefit of the state.
Goswami, in his hourlong speech, touched on issues like strengthening of the state administration by giving more power to the panchayati raj with people?s participation instead of remaining a puppet in the hands of political leaders for fulfilling their vested interests.
The AGP president arrived in Dhubri escorted by party leaders Phani Bhusan Choudhury, Nurul Hussain, Aminul Islam, Bhupen Roy, Prasanta Kumar Baruah and Jayanta Kumar Baruah. The meeting was presided over by Santosh Kumar Sarkar, president of the party?s Dhubri unit.