No truth in AGP-BJP alliance talks, says Mahanta

No truth in AGP-BJP alliance talks, says Mahanta
SAMUDRA GUPTA KASHYAP

GUWAHATI, MARCH 13: Assam Chief Minister and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today dismissed reports that he had ever approached the BJP's national leadership with a proposal for an alliance between the two parties, and described newspaper reports in this regard as rumours spread by the other party.

Mahanta also launched an attack on the BJP today, complaining about the NDA Government's neglect of the North-East and Assam, and adding that the AGP would always fight the Centre tooth and nail over its neglect of the region.Addressing a crowded press conference at the party headquarters here, Mahanta also clarified that there was no need whatsoever for his party to ask for the BJP's support because it was capable of forming a comfortable government once again.

``Neither have we approached the BJP, nor had the BJP ever come to us with any such proposal,'' Mahanta said, dismissing as figments of imagination recent reports that he had been closeted with Union Home Minister L.K. Advani in New Delhi on Saturday talking about an alliance between the two parties.

The AGP, he said, has been always critical of the BJP, and a resolution to this effect was passed at the recent Nagaon convention of the party, Mahanta pointed out.

The Chief Minister also claimed that while the existing four-party alliance in the state was still intact and ``discussions are on with several smaller groups for broadbasing the same''. Such smaller groups include a Bodo faction as well as one faction of the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC).

In another significant move, Mahanta also described Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party as a friend of the AGP. The United People's Party of Assam (UPPA), a constituent of the AGP-led four-party ruling alliance, had merged with the Samajwadi Party last month.

Mahanta, however, denied having ``official'' knowledge that the UPPA had merged with the Samajwadi Party, but agreed that the AGP was not averse to taking the United Minorities Front (UMF) in its fold if the UPPA had already roped it in to its side.

``The minorities have been always safer during the AGP's rule,'' Mahanta pointed out, describing the Congress as always shedding crocodile's tears for the minorities.

As for allegations made by the Congress and the BJP that the AGP would use the SULFA (surrendered ULFA militants) during the elections, Mahanta said it was the Congress that had been using them. During the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress had used SULFA members to destroy an election office of the AGP, he claimed.