Politics / Assam

Nagaon/Silchar, May 2: Delhi’s truce with the militant Dima Halam Daoga (DHD) in Assam’s North Cachar Hills and Karbi Anglong districts has run into rough weather with Dispur indicating it will petition the Union home ministry to rein in the group, much as it denies any ceasefire violation.

Sources said the officials of the two troubled districts informed the Tarun Gogoi government that it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain law and order in the absence of a mechanism to check violation of the ceasefire. A senior official in the North Cachar Hills said: “We cannot be strong with...

GUWAHATI, May 2—With Jehadi Islamic militancy on the rise across the globe, security agencies in the North East are worried about its spread in the region. With the region already embroiled in a large number of secessionist movements, there are fears that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) may fire the imagination of susceptible young minds, among the Muslims here, with “ultra-fundamentalist” propaganda.

What has caused alarm in security circles here is the steady growth in the number of madrassas in the region, particularly in the states bordering Bangladesh. Among these states...

HAILAKANDI, April 8— Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today announced that there is no Bangladeshi Muslim living illegally in Assam. Addressing a big election rally in Hailakandi in favour of Congress candidate from Karimganj seat Lalit Mohan Suklabaidya, he alleged that it is the propaganda of BJP and Sangh Parivar. He assured that the communal leader Praveen Togadia’s entry has been banned in the State and informed that he will have to give an undertaking that he will not give any speech which may create communal tension in the State. He strongly declared that his Congress Government will protest...

KOKRAJHAR, April 5— The All Bodo Student’s Union (ABSU) has asked BDLP chief whip Biswajit Daimary to step down from the party’s chief whip for violating the discipline of the party and ABSU in the last Rajya Sabha elections where two Bodo MLAs indirectly voted for Congress. ABSU President Rabiram Narzary in a press conference held at ‘Bodofa House’, Baganshali on Friday said that the ABSU has held discussion with the BDLP MLAs yesterday and decided to oust Biswajit Daimary from his party post while another MLA of 31-Sidli Matindra Basumatary who also intentionally made the goof up in the...

GUWAHATI, April 4– The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has started a new campaign to woo the new generation of voters by launching its own website www.agpassam.org here today. The website contains the history of the regional party, aims and objectives of the party, achievements of the AGP governments in the State including steps taken for economic development, profiles of the candidates contesting in the ensuing polls, profiles of the leaders of the party and its legislators, etc. The election manifesto of the party, which was released yesterday, is also available on the website.

AGP spokesman...

GUWAHATI, April 3 – The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has demanded regional autonomy with true federal structure for the all round development of all sections of people of small States like Assam. The AGP, in its manifesto for the ensuing general elections, which was released by the party president Brindaban Goswami this morning, observed that concentration of powers at Delhi is one of the main reasons for lack of development of the smaller States and demanded that all powers, barring defence, external affairs, communication and currency, should be handed over to the States.

The AGP demanded...

GUWAHATI, April 2 – The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has nominated Sailen Hanse, a retired Senior BDO and a resident of Diphu as its candidate for the Autonomous District Lok Sabha constituency. Earlier, the AGP was supposed to extend support to the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) for the Lok Sabha seat. But following the role of the ASDC’s two legislators in the recent elections to the two Rajya Sabha (RS) seats for the State, the AGP has decided to field its own candidate for the seat, said AGP general secretary Dilip Kumar Saikia here this evening. The ASDC legislators had cast their...

DHAKA, April 2 – Bangladesh has virtually ruled out the possibility of extradition of jailed ULFA leader Anup Chetia saying the government cannot intervene in judicial matters, reports PTI. Foreign Minister Mohammed Morshed Khan told reporters here on Wednesday that "the government can't intervene in the matter as the case pertaining to Chetia is in the court." An NGO run by Sigma Huda, wife of Bangladesh's powerful Communication Minister Nazmul Huda, has moved the court pleading against Chetia's extradition and seeking political asylum for him in Bangladesh. The government is yet to take...

GUWAHATI, April 1 — Population pattern plays a key role in determining the fate of political parties in several key Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam and there are constituencies where the Congress have traditionally done well even during the polls which were held amidst anti-Congress wave in the State. According to records available in the Election Commission of India website, in Dibrugarh constituency, dominated by the tea tribes, the Congress have been doing very well for years together and no party even came close to posing a serious challenge to the Congress in successive elections. In...

GUWAHATI, March 31 — The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) today expelled former Rajya Sabha member Jayashree Goswami Mahanta from the party for filing her nomination as an independent candidate from the Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency. AGP spokesman Jagadish Bhuyan said that the party president Brindaban Goswami took the decision to expel Goswami Mahanta, wife of former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, from the party following discussions with other senior leaders of the party. He said that Goswami Mahanta went against the interest of the party by filing nomination against the AGP candidate...