Mudslinging and verbal attacks will definitely surge once the poll dates are announced, but as with any state, there are some crucial issues which will play a significant role in influencing voters in Assam too, says Devanik Saha.
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which trained a batch of Assam's United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militants in 1991-92, considered the rebel group's chief Paresh Baruah a prize catch and did not want to offend him even after he was unwilling to take the agency's commands on conducting operations in the northeastern state, claims a new book.
'After the NRC it is proved that whatever the BJP was saying about illegal Bangladeshi migrant was a lie and Indian Muslims have their documents to prove their citizenship.'
This assurance came even as Bhutan kept up the pressure on Northeastern militants holed up in that country.
Sarma said his government had prepared a dossier on PFI and would be taking action against the outfit in the state.
Noted novelist Jnanpith Dr Mamoni Raisom Goswami (Indira Goswami) on Friday vowed to continue with her efforts to bring the banned militant group to negotiations.
ULFA 'Captain' Antu Chaudang and 'Second Lieutenant' Pradeep Chetia were pushed back through the Dawki border early on Saturday and were taken to Guwahati by a team of the Assam police. Chaudang is considered a close confidant of ULFA hardliner and commander in chief Paresh Baruah
After another round of talks with the Central government today, the faction of the militant United Liberation Front of Assam led by its 'chairman' Arabinda Rajkhowa hopes for an early solution to the problem as the 'talks are progressing along the right course'.
'The Kuki-Zo are aware of this rich resource in their areas and feel the Meitei push for ST status is because of this reason'.
While Himanta Biswa Sarma scotched rumours that he would be the king this time, political sources in Guwahati maintained that he, and not Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had a bigger say in choosing candidates, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam, led by Arabinda Rajkhowa, has set the tone for dialogue to resolve the over 31-year-old vexed insurgency problem in the state by dropping its main demand for 'sovereignty'.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday said that like all other insurgent groups in truce with the government, the banned United Liberation Front of Assam too would have to enter into a formal agreement for suspension of operation and surrender weapons before starting dialogue with the government of India.
In a statement e-mailed to the media, ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa said the people of Assam should be prepared to carry out more difficult agitational programmes in future if the 'Indian occupational force' continued with its repressive design to annihilate people's effort for a peaceful political solution to the conflict.
The United Liberation Front of Assam (anti-talks has registered its strong opposition to the proposed exchange of adversely possessed land between India and Bangladesh during the visit of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to Dhaka on September 6-7, and warned Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi against taking a 'soft stand' on the issue.
The proscribed United Liberation Front of Assam, which is now reeling under sustained and intensified counter-insurgency operation by the Army -- especially in Eastern Assam areas and the two hill districts of the state -- has alleged that the government of India was interested in crushing the 'ULFA revolution' by using force and not at all interested in a political solution to "Assam-India" conflict.
This is not the first time that the ULFA insisted on a plebiscite as a way to end the imbroglio over whether people of Assam need or aspire for 'sovereignty' or not.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act or AFSPA was extended by another six months in Manipur on Wednesday barring 19 police stations falling under the Imphal valley and an area that shares its boundary with neighbouring Assam.
Terrorists belonging to banned groups United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and People's Liberation Army (PLA) were allegedly part of the mob from which gunshots were fired at an army officer that left him severely injured in Manipur, officials said Monday.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday called upon the fugitive commander in chief of the United Liberation Front of Asom Paresh Baruah to come out of the clutches of the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence and other forces inimical to India and hold talks with the government of India instead of engineering killings of innocent people in Assam.
The ULFA threat comes following a story telecast by the channel that alleged that the militant group was willing to call off the boycott of the forthcoming National Games in Guwahati in lieu of money from Assam government.
The banned insurgent group called upon all ethnic groups in Assam to remain united behind its revolution against the 'Indian colonial rule' with an objective to liberate Assam and its people.
'The violence that shook Assam was a direct outcome of the state's ethnic problem... The tension that created a rift between the Bodos and the non-Bodos for years found a blood-spattered expression.' Former NSG chief Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, the Trinamool Congress candidate from Kokrajhar, speaks to Indrani Roy/Rediff.com about last week's carnage in Assam.
Upping the ante, United Liberation Front of Asom 'commander-in-chief' Paresh Barua shot off a 'last message' to the centre, asking it to take a referendum in Assam if it could not discuss the sovereignty issue with the group.
'The loose use of words like foreigner or Bangladeshis obscures the fact that the post-Partition migration to Assam has been of both Hindus and Muslims.'
'There is a design of fundamentalists that the north east must become an Islamic country.'
A direct contest between nominees of the BJP-led NDA and Congress-headed Grand Alliance is on the cards in 20 constituencies
Having prepared its charter of demands, the pro-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Assam is now ready for talks. They now await a formal invitation to the first round of talks with the government of India.
In the wake of the killing of 18 Armymen in Manipur, government plans to deploy either Indo-Tibetan Border Police or Assam Rifles for manning the 389-km-long Indo-Myanmar border in the state.
Gogoi renewed his appeal to the ULFA to agree to talks for the sake of lasting peace and economic growth of Assam.
Saikia, kidnapped on April 21, was released near the border in Longwa village of Mon district in Nagaland after 31 days, said a top official at Assam Police headquarters.
'The BJP is taking a risk in Assam, but it may face a tough time in coming times,' says Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty.
More than 750 constituencies spread across four states and one union territory will go to the polls on Tuesday
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday informed that 10 tribal militants involved in the killing of Hamren police district Superintendent Nityananda Goswami and his personal security officer Ratul Nunisa have been arrested during the intensified operation launched by the Assam police and paramilitary forces in Karbi Anglong hill district of the state.
Quoting data collected from various sources, officials closely monitoring the situation here said that .303 rifles, Medium Machine Guns (MMG) and AK assault rifles, carbines, Insas Light Machine Guns (LMG), Insas rifles, M-16 and MP5 rifles were reported to be missing from the armouries of the police in May.
The villagers were venting their anger after militants burnt down at least 100 abandoned houses including the residence of Sugnu Congress MLA K Ranjit at Serou in Kakching district on Saturday midnight.
The general secretary and a founder leader of the United Liberation Front of Assam, Anup Chetia alias Golap Barua who is now lodged in a Bangladesh jail because of his pending application for political asylum, now wants to come back to his birth place Assam where he wants to live for the rest of life.
About 150 commandos of Gujarat Police will be guarding Bharatiya Janata Party's PM candidate Narendra Modi as he will address his supporters at the Assam Veterinary Science College Grounds in Guwahati on Saturday.
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