Cracks appeared today in the Congress-BPF alliance with the Bodo outfit declaring its support to anti-Congress forces like AGP and BJP in the second phase of the Assembly polls in Assam on April 11.
Sore over the Chief Minister’s announcement that the Congress would form the next government on its own, the Bodoland Peoples Front pooh-poohed Tarun Gogoi for his remark yesterday that the ruling party would bag 45 to 46 of the 62 seats that went to polls on April 4 in the first phase.
Mr. Gogoi had, however, said the existing alliance with the BPF would remain. “BPF is there. Our relations will continue.”
Constituencies in lower Assam having a large number of Bodo dominated areas figure in the second phase of polling.
“Though the BPF extended support to the Congress in some upper Assam constituencies in the first phase, there is no question of extending similar support to that party in lower Assam,” BPF supremo Hagrama Mohilary told an election rally here.
Mr. Mohilary, a former insurgent alleged that due to internal differences between state Congress president Bhubaneswar Kalita and the Chief Minister, the PCC chief has been trying to demoralise the BPF.
“This is unfriendly to Congress-BPF ties,” the BPF leader said and threatened that his party would now help anti-Congress forces like AGP, BJP and AIUDF to form the government.
Pramila Rani Brahma, BPF contestant for the Kokrajhar (East) and member of Gogoi ministry, also criticised the Congress for the chief minister’s remarks.
Claiming that the Congress would not be able to form the next government on its own, Ms. Brahma asserted, “The Congress could bring development to the State in recent times only due to the Congress-BPF alliance.”
“We will see how the Congress forms the government without the BPF. Congress candidates will be defeated by the BPF or AIUDF,” she said.
In 2006, Congress, which won 53 of the 126 seats, came to power with the help of eight BPF MLAs and five Independents.
