Politics / Assam

Nagaon, Feb. 19: Still smarting from his defeat in the AGP presidential election last month, former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today pulled out of the Lok Sabha contest even ?if his party decided to nominate him?.

Mahanta dismissed speculation that he would contest the poll from Nagaon, his home district. ?I am not interested in contesting, not even if my party decides to nominate me,? he told newsmen at his residence here.

Mahanta?s statement came as a rude shock to a section of his sympathisers who have been projecting their leader as the party candidate for the coming elections...

GUWAHATI, Feb 18 ? The state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will have the first meeting of its election committee on March 2 to finalise the list of probable candidates for the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the Assam. The list will be sent to the central election committee of the party, which will meet between March 10 and 15, for the finalisation of the candidates.

The party, in all likelihood, will renominate its two sitting MPs in the state, Bijoya Chakravarty and Rajen Gohain in Guwahati and Nagaon constituencies respectively. ?Our normal convention is not to disturb the sitting MPs,? said party...

GUWAHATI, Feb 17 ? With general elections round the corner, the almost three million strong Koch Rajbongshi community in the State have decided to intensify their battle for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. The All Assam Koch Rajbongshi Sanmilani (AAKRS), spearheading the agitation, today also asserted the demand to carve a ?State within a State? for the community in Assam.

Addressing a press conference here this afternoon, AAKRS general secretary Durlav Chamua said that the Koch Rajbongshi community in the State have been demanding ST status since 1967. However, the formal inclusion in the ST...

NEW DELHI, Feb 16 ? The possibility of an alliance between the BJP and AGP has receded with the national party?s central leadership today maintaining that it would go all alone in Assam. Talking to newsmen after the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting, general secretary of the Party Pramod Mahajan said that there will no alliance in Assam. However, he added that in other North Eastern States, the Party may go in for alliance in one or two seats.

The clarification by the BJP?s central leadership came even as it asked all its State units to get into election mode and convene State Election Committee...

NEW DELHI, Feb 12 ? Taking a serious note of the unabated illegal infiltration from across the border, the Supreme Court today directed the Central and the State Governments of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and West Bengal to file a status report on the latest position within four weeks. What is significant is that the three-member Bench of Justice Rajendra Babu, Justice GP Mathur and Justice AR Laxman directed that the petition on IMDT Act pending before the apex Court be posted for final hearing. The hearing on the writ petition filed by Sarbananda Sonowal challenging the validity of the IMDT...

GOALPARA, Feb 10 ? Congress has once again occupied the seat of power in Goalpara Municipal Board. Although the denizens of Goalpara contemplated this immediately after the declaration of results of the civic polls, skepticism prevails whether the new board can or have the mindset to carry out its obligations in the interest of the voters faithfully.

In the last civic polls, out of the 19 wards, Congress candidates came out victorious in seven wards, AGP in five wards, NCP in three wards and BJP in one ward while the remaining three seats went in favour of independent candidates. However...

Feb. 8: Railway minister Nitish Kumar today guided the National Democratic Alliance?s pre-poll gravy train into Assam, setting the pace for a whirlwind BJP campaign that includes plans for eight star-spangled rallies in the state and 15 throughout the Northeast in just 10 days.

Accompanied by defence minister George Fernandes and food and consumer affairs minister Sharad Yadav, Kumar flagged off work on two rail projects ? restoration and gauge conversion from Haibargaon to Moirabari and Senchowa to Silghat, both in Nagaon district.

The inauguration of the twin projects, estimated to cost Rs...

Guwahati, Feb. 7: Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) president Brindaban Goswami has finalised the first list of the party?s new executive committee after marathon sessions with his supporters and senior leaders of the party. Though a majority of the 106 office-bearers were finalised yesterday during discussions at his chamber in Dispur, three more names were added during a second round of discussions at his residence today.

The ones included today are Biraj Sharma (vice-president), Padma Hazarika (finance secretary) and Atul Bora (general secretary).

Goswami will announce the second and final list by...

GUWAHATI, Feb 6 - The list of the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) central executive committee members is yet to be finalised. The constitution of the party has provided for a central executive committee of 106 members. The latest Tezpur conference of the party had authorised party president Brindaban Goswami to constitute the executive committee.

According to party sources here today, the list will be declared in two phases. The first part of the list will be finalised this night, while the second part will be finalised after consulting the party steering committee, being formed in the first...

NEW DELHI, Feb 4 ? China has denied receiving any request from outlawed ULFA for safe passage even as India got in touch with China to checkmate the rebel outfit, Minister of State for External Affairs, Digvijay Singh confirmed here today.

The Minister informed in the Lok Sabha that after media reports regarding a letter addressed to the Chinese Government by ULFA, came to the notice of the Government of India, his Ministry got in touch with the Chinese Embassy here The ULFA had sought safe passage through Chinese territory for members of insurgent groups seeking to escape the armed...