All eyes on ULFA's stand during polls

GUWAHATI, August 4: With the Lok Sabha elections fast approaching, all the political parties as well as the people of the state are watching with keen interest as to what will be the stand taken by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) vis-?-vis the election this time. The interest stemmed from the fact that during the Lok Sabha elections last year, the outfit had called for a poll boycott. In the wake of ignominious defeat in the elections, the ruling Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) had tried to blame it on an alleged ULFA-Congress nexus. The AGP alleged that the Congress engineered the ULFA poll boycott to prevent AGP supporters from casting their votes. The Congress which swept the last polls in the state clinching 11 seats, challenged the AGP to prove their charge. Political observers believed that the ULFA diktat regarding polls favoured the Congress as the militant outfit hardly has any influence in the traditional minority votebank of the party. On the other hand, the boycott call influenced the AGP support base to a certain extent as large number of people did not come to vote out of the fear for the ULFA gun. Already the ULFA has appealed to political parties contesting election in the state this time to include the demand for the right to self-determination for the people of the state in their poll manifestos.