AGP alliance finalises seat sharing

GUWAHATI, August 7: The ruling four-party alliance in Assam today announced that it would contest 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) president and Chief Minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, announced this at a press conference after a meeting of the four partners -AGP, Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) and United People's Party of Assam (UPPA). Mahanta said UPPA would contest the Silchar seat, CPI would contest from Dhubri while CPM would field candidates in Barpeta and Karimganj constituencies. The AGP will contest the eight seats - Lakhimpur, Tezpur, Mangaldoi, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaliabor, Nagaon and Guwahati The party had contested 10 Lok Sabha seats in the 1998 polls. The ruling alliance has decided to support the People's Democratic Front (PDF) candidate in the reserved Kokrajhar constituency. The decision to have an electoral alliance with the PDF was arrived at after the Bodo political party agreed not to field candidates in Tezpur and Mangaldoi. However, the PDF acting president, D Brahma, who also attended the press meet, said it was only a "seat adjustment" and not an electoral alliance. He said, "We have responded positively to the AGP's request for seat adjustments in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls". On the Diphu parliamentary constituency, Mahanta said the alliance partners were yet to take a decision whether to contest or support any other party candidate's. "We will take a decision in a few days", he said. The alliance is yet to announce the names of the candidates. The alliance leaders said they would have a common minimum programme in addition to their respective party manifestos for the Lok Sabha elections. The common minimum programme would be announced on a later date.