Congress workers join BJP in Guwahati AGP to fight LS polls with BJP in Assam

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) will fight the Lok Sabha election in Assam in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), two months after severing ties with the saffron party over the contentious citizenship bill.

“After discussion, BJP and AGP have decided to work together in the coming Parliament election in Assam to defeat Congress,” Madhav, the BJP’s incharge of Northeast, tweeted early on Wednesday.

He said, “I am sharing the good. The three parties have decided to work together. We three came together prior to 2016 assembly polls. Details of seat sharing and other details will be worked out by state leadership in next couple of days.”

“Announced it at Guwahati in the presence of Himanta Biswa Sarma of BJP and Atul Bora and Keshav Mahanta of AGP,” he said, adding that the “Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) will be the third partner in the alliance,” he added.

The alliance was finalised in a meeting among BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, AGP president Atul Bora and others

The AGP, BJP and the BPF had contested the 2016 Assembly election together and defeated the Congress, which had been in power in the state for three consecutive terms since 2001.

The AGP chief, however, did not respond to any query regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and the party’s stand on it during the election.

The AGP has withdrew its support to the BJP government in Assam in January in protest against the Centre’s decision to go ahead with a ‘communal’ bill that which seeks to grant nationality to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan after six years of residence in India.