'Friendly contest' raises confusion

GUWAHATI, April 15: The term 'friendly contest' is creating confusion among the rank and file of both the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). According to an agreement arrived at by the parties, they would go for 'friendly contest' in 10 constituencies but the concept of such a contest is not clearly described by the leaders of the parties. The Chief Minister and AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta recently told this correspondent that all the 10 constituencies where they have decided to go for friendly contest, were the strongholds of the AGP. He said that the AGP is confident of winning the seats where they have decided to go for friendly contest. He also pointed out that in the 1996 polls also, the AGP had gone for friendly contests with the alliance partners in several constituencies. In this context, he pointed out that in 1996 both the AGP and CPI candidates contested from the Jamunamukh constituency and "we managed to defeat the Congress." However, despite the party president's statement, the party workers are not yet fully assured as there is apprehension on whether the sitting MLAs in these constituencies would be sacrificed. Meanwhile, confusion also prevails in the BJP camp over the issue of 'friendly contest'. A senior State BJP leader, on condition of anonymity said that there were some misunderstanding on the issue. He said, "as per the agreement we were supposed to contest in 44 seats but after the friendly contests, in reality we would get only 34 seats." The BJP leaders today held a meeting with the AGP leaders to discuss the issue and submitted a new proposals. As per the proposal, if the AGP goes for friendly contests in 10 constituencies, the BJP would also field its candidates in 10 other constituencies of its liking for a friendly contest. It may be mentioned here that Mahanta recently blamed the State BJP leadership for their failure to maintain party discipline and expressed apprehension that the dissidence in the BJP might affect the poll prospects of the alliance. When contacted today, the BJP State unit president Rajen Gohain said, "if someone wants to go out of the party, this does not mean that the State party leadership is weak." He said that he was trying his best to persuade every member not to leave the party. He said that only a minor faction of the BJP workers have left the party and that would not destabilise the party in Assam. He expressed the hope that things would cool down soon. He also hoped that they would be able to persuade those who left the party to come back. On the visit of the national leaders including vice-president Pyarelal Khandewal, general secretary (organisation) Narendra Modi and general secretary in charge of Assam Sunil Shastri, the State BJP president said that he had requested the national president of the party to send a team of senior leaders to pacify the party workers and to remove the misunderstanding. He said that the leaders held meetings with the party workers and things have cooled down.