The Bharatiya Janata Party has ruled out any tie-up with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in Assam for the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
The AGP had in January snapped ties with the BJP, its ruling ally since May 2016, over the latter’s push for the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. The regional party, however, had indicated that it could forge ties with the BJP again after the Bill could not be passed in the Rajya Sabha on February 13.
“We took a decision a few days ago not to have any electoral tie-up with the AGP, which walked away from the government. We intimated this to our party president Amit Shah during his visit (on Sunday),” State BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass said on Monday, indicating that his party had closed the doors on the AGP.
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The BJP, he said, was keen on improving upon its 2014 Lok Sabha poll performance. That year the party bagged seven of the 14 parliamentary seats, while the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front won three seats each. An Independent candidate won one seat.
The Congress, meanwhile, ridiculed the AGP for “lack of clarity” on the resignation of its three Ministers from the Sarbananda Sonowal government. “They handed over their resignation letters to the Chief Minister, but they have apparently not been processed further,” Congress MLA Abdul Khaleque said in the Assembly.