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Less than 24 hours before polling begins on Thursday for the 126 member Assam Assembly, the ruling Asom Gana Parishad and Bharatiya Janata Party alliance has been rocked by an internal tussle over "friendly seats".
A day after Sushma Swaraj asked the AGP to vacate the Upper Assam seat of Teok for the BJP candidate, BJP national vice-president Pyarelal Khandewal late on Tuesday night urged the AGP to withdraw its candidates from all seven seats where the two allies are engaged in "friendly contests".
In a statement issued from New Delhi, the BJP leader claimed that the party's candidates have "emerged stronger than the AGP candidates" in all the seven seats marked for "friendly contests".
"Since the BJP candidates have emerged stronger, the AGP should withdraw so that there is no confusion among the voters," he said.
The seven constituencies are Teok, Raha, Guwahati (West), Naobaicha, Barchalla and Hajo. Of these four are held by the AGP in the outgoing assembly. In fact, two of its heavyweight ministers Nurul Hussain and R N Kalita are among the four sitting MLAs. The Teok seat is held by the outgoing Deputy Speaker Ms Renupama Rajkhowa.
Khandelwal added that the AGP should also ask its supporters to vote for the BJP to prevent the Congress from taking advantage of any split in the votes.
None of the AGP leaders were available for comment.
The AGP-BJP combine appeared to be under strain with the state BJP also accusing the AGP leadership of "sabotaging" Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's rally in Guwahati on Sunday.
Talking to newsmen before Swaraj's rally at Chandmari on Tuesday, state BJP president Rajen Gohain attributed the poor attendance at the prime minister's rally to the "sabotage" by the AGP.
Not more than 900 people attended the AGP-BJP combine's rally at Judges' Field, sparking speculation about the "health" of the alliance. Swaraj's rally, organised to make up for the earlier flop show, met a similar fate, with attendance as low as 2,500.
Gohain, who till the notification for the polls was opposed to the tie-up because of the anti-incumbency wave, attributed Tuesday's poor turnout to non-availability of buses.
Swaraj, the last of the "star campaigners," dubbed the elections as "extraordinary" on which the "future of Assam" hinges.
Though the meeting did not rise over the mundane, Swaraj still tried to make most of the rally by using her famed oratorical skills to blame the Congress for all the state's woes, particularly influx and violence.
She lambasted the party for "not" condemning the attacks by the banned ULFA on its workers but said that in politics there are no enemies: "There are only opponents."
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