Seat sharing talks on; AGP, BJP narrow down differences

NEW DELHI, April 6: The dialogue between the AGP and the BJP continued for the second day today, with both sides claiming to have narrowed down their differences over the seat sharing arrangements. Amidst a feeling of bonhomie, the two sides here this evening, got down to the fourth round of negotiation to hammer out the crucial seat adjustment agreement. The third round that got under way last evening and continued till 4 in the morning today, saw the AGP and BJP negotiators adjusting bulk of the Assembly seats, leaving the only the contentious ones aside, according to a BJP source. If indications here are anything to go by the BJP has agreed to scale down their demand to 50 from 55 seats, even as the AGP offered around 40 seats for electoral adjustments. The two parties, it may be recalled here, have decided to field candidates in 108 seats out of the total 126 LACs, leaving the balance of the 18 seats to the Bodos and the Holiram Terang led ASDC. Spokesman of the AGP and former Union Minister, Biren Baishya told The Assam Tribune they have made it clear that they are not sacrificing any of the seats held by sitting MLAs. "We are discussing adjustment only in cases of seats that are not with us," he asserted. But a BJP State executive member told this newspaper later in the evening that a few seats held by AGP have been axed and given to them. "After all, alliance is nothing but a policy of give and take," he contended. According to the leader, 25 seats have already been resolved in their favour. The BJP by all indications was trying to drive a hard bargain trying to secure as many seats as possible on the basis of the results of the 1999 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP State unit general secretary, Sanjeev Goswami told this correspondent that the two parties were engaged in seat-by-seat analysis examining each other's strength and weakness to ensure that the best possible option was worked out to defeat the Congress Party, "Its not a question of how many seats we end up giving each other but the issue is working out an effective strategy to check the Congress Party, our common opponent," he argued. At the end of the crucial third round of negotiations the two parties appeared optimistic about clinching the issue sooner than expected though both the sides declined to specify any time-frame. The AGP's logic in offering around 40 seats at the BJP, a party leader analysed, was that out of the 108 seats, the AGP has sitting MLAs in 63 seats including the three seats held by expelled leaders Atul Bora, Bhrigu Kumar Phukan and Pulakesh Baruah. In addition, it has also taken into account the six seats in had shared with the CPI, CPI-M and the erstwhile United People Party of Assam, taking the total to 69 seats, leaving out only 39 seats for adjustments with the BJP. But the BJP, sources said, has not accepted the proposal countering it by pointing towards the election results of the 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha polls, which showed that the party has gained ground in Assam and it's vote share has multiplied as compared to the 1996 election results. Meanwhile, general secretary of the BJP in charge for Northeast, Sunil Shastri told this newspaper that the Central leadership has decided to release the list of candidates for Assam in a phase-manner. The BJP's Central Election Committee begins its meeting to select the candidates in the four States going to polls from April 9. Assam's list of candidates is, however, expected to be released separately in view of the seat adjustment negotiations with the AGP, he added.