Future of AGP alliance uncertain

GUWAHATI, March 8: With less than a couple of months to go for the Assam Assembly elections, the ruling four-party alliance partners are still not sure whether to stick with the alliance. In the neighbouring State West Bengal, which will also go to polls along with Assam, the major political parties have already started the process of announcing the names of their candidates, but in Assam the ruling alliance partners are yet to start the discussions for seat sharing. The State Committee secretary of the CPM, Hemen Das today said that the alliance partners are yet to meet to formulate their strategy for the ensuing polls. He asserted that the CPM would continue to persue its stand of opposing both the Congress and the BJP in Assam and "if the AGP comes closer to the BJP, we shall be forced to come out of the alliance." He said that the CPM would face the polls alone if necessary. Das said that the last meeting between the alliance partners was held on February 7, in which the AGP announced its decision to continue with the present alliance. He said that the next meeting to formulate the poll strategy would be held shortly. "All I can say is that today we are a part of the alliance. But I can not say what will happen in the next few days. If the AGP goes for some kind of understanding with the BJP then the CPM will never stay in the alliance," he added. The CPM leader said that his party has started gearing up for the polls and grassroot level meetings are being held in different parts of the State. He said that in some constituencies, even the polling station-level committees have been formed. However, he refused to divulge the names of the constituencies at this moment. Das expressed the view that the existing alliance has a very good chance of retaining power if all the alliance partners manage to stick together. He expressed the opinion that the people of the State are not in favour of voting the Congress back to power, while the Congress back to power, while, the BJP does not have a strong vote bank to form the government in the State. He said that though the BJP did well in the last two Parliamentary elections, the vote bank of the Party has eroded and the people of Assam are aware that the BJP would not be able to form the Government in the State. It may be mentioned here that some serious difference of opinion cropped up between the ruling alliance partners in recent months and the CPM has been opposing the Government decision to impose a ban on Government appointments. Das said that the process of appointments should have started earlier and "we do not know how the Government proposed to give appointments by following proper procedures in such a very short time." The CPM is also opposed to the decision to appoint a political leader (AGP general secretary Amiya Bora) as the chairman of the Assam Public Service Commission. Das said that the process of appointing politicians as APSC chairman was started by former Chief Minister Sarat Chandra Sinha. He said that the Government should have appointed a senior office with integrity as the APSC chairman and "we are always opposed to the idea of appointing a political leader as the head of the commission."