Large dams and flood problems are campaign issues both for the Congress and Asom Gana Parishad locked in direct contest in most of the six assembly seats in THE flood-prone Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts which go to the polls on April 4.
Leading the protest against 'India-Bangladesh Land Pact' that was signed on September 6 in Dhaka in presence of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina, the All Assam Students Union on Thursday brought out a protest rally in the city.
They may differ in their ideologies but thanks to the Election Commission, 13 political parties share five symbols in various states. According to the EC website, Bala Saheb Thackeray's Shiv Sena, which preaches Hindu nationalism, shares its symbol 'Bow and Arrow' with Shibu Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha which focuses on regional interests.
With 21 being the minimum required strength required for a single party in the 126-member house, no opposition party has got the number, including the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP).
The ULFA anti-talks faction triggered a blast at Assam Pradesh Congres Committee headquarter on March 14 in which three Congress leaders were injured. But Gogoi on Friday tried to make light of the ULFA threat saying that the threat had been there since a long time.
A united opposition stalled proceedings in the Rajya Sabha pressing the government to come clear on the name of a union minister alleged to have links with a Bangladeshi arms dealer.
Assam's opposition parties including the BJP, AGP and AIUDF accused the ruling Congress of murdering democracy even as party won the election to two of the Rajya Sabha after four of the BJP MLAs and two AIUDF MLAs decided to vote for Congress candidate defying a party whip to vote for opposition's common candidate Jayanta Baruah, a media baron.
The Congress, which won assembly elections with a thumping majority to retain power in Assam, would not have even got a simple majority had the Asom Gana Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party cobbled up a pre-poll alliance. As per the election statistics, the Congress would have been defeated in at least 20 seats had the AGP and the BJP joined hands in fighting the polls in the north-eastern state.
The total income of national and regional parties from unknown sources for 2020-21 stands at Rs 690.67 crore.
Soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party declared on Thursday that Asom Gana Parishad has joined the National Democratic Alliance and announced a seat-sharing pact between them in Assam, the regional party's chief denied joining the alliance saying the relationship is confined to sharing of seats only.
The ruling Congress in Assam is way ahead in respect of preparedness for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls compared to its arch rivals, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the regional Asom Gana Parishad.
Apart from the 18 members of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including the Bharatiya Janata Party, seven non-National Democratic Alliance parties will attend the ceremony, going by their stated position on the issue which has snowballed into another political flashpoint between the ruling and opposition camps.
The Congress' Assam unit is banking heavily on party veterans to win the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, indicates a list of the 11 candidates released by the party. The party is contesting from 13 LS constituencies out of the total 14 seats. It has left one seat to its ally Bodo People's Front.Candidates from Lakhimpur and Dhubri are yet to be announced.
The Asom Gana Parishad on Monday announced the names of its candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls and vowed to give a tough challenge to the ruling Congress in the state.Announcing the name of the party candidates, AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary said, "An united AGP armed with a seat sharing arrangement with the Bharatiya Janata Party will form a formidable force against the Congress, which is already jittery over our tie up with the BJP."
The BJP on Thursday announced a seat-sharing arrangement with the Asom Gana Parishad, saying that it will contest eight of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam while the regional party will field candidates in rest of the six constituencies.
The formal induction of Asom Gana Parishad into the National Democratic Alliance on Wednesday failed to take off with the former raising some "last minute" queries on the alliance forcing the Bharatiya Janata Party to postpone a joint press conference by their top leadership.
Unidentified militants shot dead a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Assam and a dealer of LP Gas, Munindra Singh Lahkar (62) at his residence at Rangiya on Thursday night.
The Asom Gana Parishad, the state's main Opposition party, has raised a demand to initiate immediate peace talks with the banned United Liberation Front of Asom. Political observers, however, view the renewed call by the AGP for peace talks as an attempt to placate ULFA before the forthcoming panchayat election in Assam.
Illegal influx of Bangladeshis into Assam tops the campaign issue for opposition Asom Gana Parishad and Bharatiya Janata Party for the forthcoming Assembly polls in the state with ruling Congress trying hard to underplay it.
The last date of withdrawal of nominations for the second phase is March 24.
Strongly reacting to All India Congress Committee vice president Rahul Gandhi's purported remarks that Asom Gana Parishad was in power for a term allegedly with the backing of insurgents, the Asom Gana Parishad on Friday said it would initiate legal action him.
As the regional parties have agreed 'in principle' to join hands in forming one single force to give challenge to Congress, the stage is also set for fomer Assam chief minister and founder president of Asom Gana Parishad Prafulla Kumar Mahanta for coming back to the party he had formed in 1985 as a culmination of Assam's agitation against illegal migrants.
It added that there was 'no sincerity' on the part of the central government to solve the insurgency problem of the state.
The unified AGP will now team up with Bharatiya Janata Party in the election to prevent division of anti-Congress votes in the state. The AGP and the BJP struck a poll pact during the recent visit of the BJP leader L K Advani to Assam.
The modalities for seat-sharing would be worked out later after AGP had talks on a similar arrangement with other opposition parties, he said. Stating that various problems of the state were discussed at the meeting, Patowary said, opposition leader Advani was urged to raise in Parliament the issues concerning the people here to pressurise the centre for solving them.
The injured included former Asom Gana Parishad MP Prabin Sharma.
The two parties will not campaign jointly and they have not forged a formal alliance.
After a series of meetings, Sarma told reporters that BJP's Assam legislature party is likely to meet in Guwahati on Sunday and all questions related to the next government will be answered there.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma were on Friday called to New Delhi by the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership, apparently to discuss about the leadership issue of the next government, five days after the saffron party-led alliance emerged victorious in the assembly elections, sources said.
Expelled Asom Gana Parishad founder-leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said on Thursday that he would be floating a new outfit by September.
Observing that Delhi had become an 'unsafe' city for women, Sonawal said students from the north-east were especially vulnerable because of their distinct looks and inability to speak Hindi.
Gam secured 67,242 votes against Basumatary's 25,101 while the third candidate, Bhaity Richong of the Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist, got 2,265 votes.
In a letter to Dhankhar, Ramesh said sending the Bill to the joint committee of both Houses means "devaluation and denigration" of the status and functions of the standing committee.
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