Poll pact with CPI, UMF unlikely: APCC

GUWAHATI, April 7: The president of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), Tarun Gogoi today said that chances of poll alliance with the CPI or the United Minority Front were very dim. He informed that although the CPI after snapping its ties with the AGP, had approached the Congress with a proposal for poll-pact, there was reservation among a larger section of Congressmen who were of the opinion that electoral understanding with the Left party at this moment would not be of much help for the Congress. Moreover, a tie-up with CPI would have to be approved by the AICC as the Congress is going to fight the Left Front which has CPI as one of the constituents, in West Bengal. The APCC chief, however, clarified that discussion with the CPI was at a very preliminary and informal level. He said the major hurdle for a tie-up with the CPI was that the Left party used to have a diametrically opposite view on the IMDT Act vis-?-vis the Congress standing on the controversial Act. When drawn to the statement made by the United Minority Front (UMF) president HRA Choudhury that proposal for poll tie-up with the minority organisation should come from the Congress, the APCC president ruled out approaching the UMF for an electoral understanding. Regarding the AGP-BJP alliance, the APCC chief today said it had brightened the prospects of the Congress in the election as it would drive both religious and linguistic minorities voters towards Congress. "Getting together of AGP and BJP has not bothered us nor it has been a surprise for us. It was only natural that two unprincipled parties have tied up in a marriage of convenience," he said. The Congress believes that the section of voters who chose to vote for the BJP in the last Lok Sabha polls in Assam would now be left with no other option but to revert to the Congress in the forthcoming polls. The Congress claiming that only it can provide an alternative to "corrupt" AGP, points out that the AGP-BJP tie-up is based on the one-point agenda of preventing Congress from coming to power in the State. "Both the AGP and the BJP are not interested in providing better governance to the people of the State. Their only interest is to keep Congress away from power at any cost," the APCC president said. He said that the AGP chief and the Chief Minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was so desperate that he did not bother to ditch his allies which sailed with him for five long years, while forging ties with the BJP. Gogoi said, "The two-timing and betraying one for another has always been a characteristic trait to Prafulla Kumar Mahanta since his days of student leadership. He can stoop to any level to attain his selfish interests. It is because of this character of him, even the ULFA has dubbed him a born traitor." When asked why the Congress referred to what the banned ULFA had said about Mahanta while criticising the action of the AGP chief, the APCC president said it was because "AGP and ULFA were best friends."