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Assam : Assembly polls next month

	March 06, 2006

Elections to the 126-member Assam Assembly are scheduled to be held in two phases next month. While 65 constituencies will go to the polls on April 3, the remaining 61 constituencies will go to the polls in the second phase on April 10. Notification for the first phase will be issued on March 10.



The entire Election Commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner B.B. Tandon, is visiting Assam today (March 6) to review poll preparations in the state. Sources in the poll panel said the CEC, along with two Election Commissioners N. Gopalaswami and Navin Chawla, would hold a series of review meetings with senior civil and police officials during the two-day visit.



Parties in poll gear



With the announcement of the poll schedule, all political parties in Assam, including some militant organisations, are now in poll gear.





State of Congress



Several senior Congress legislators, including former and present ministers in the Tarun Gogoi cabinet, are staring at an uncertain future with the Assam PCC deciding to “rest” a third of the sitting MLAs in the elections.



Party sources said the Congress, which has set in motion the process of screening candidates, is under intense pressure from within to replace “non-performing and tainted legislators” with new faces. PCC president Bhubaneswar Kalita did not specify the fate of these legislators, but hinted that many would not get tickets. “It is not necessary that all sitting legislators have to be re-nominated,” he said.



Performance and clean image, however, would not necessarily be the yardstick to select candidates, the sources said. “No doubt several influential ministers, despite being tainted, will get tickets. But since pressure is intense, several heads will roll,” a party general secretary said.



The party is likely to announce its first list of candidates by March 15. The list will contain the names of candidates for the 65 Assembly constituencies going to the first phase of polls on April 3.



The Congress is unlikely to project Gogoi as its chief ministerial candidate even as it seeks a fresh mandate on the performance of the present government. “It will be a collective leadership. We are not projecting anybody as the chief ministerial candidate,” Kalita said.



He, however, lauded the performance of the Gogoi government and said people would definitely re-elect the party on the basis of its performance. Kalita claimed that an assessment made by the party in various Assembly segments foretold a thumping victory for the party.





AGP rules out truck with BJP



Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) which is the major opposition party is the state, is posing a major challenge to the Congress. In a significant announcment last week, the party ruled out a pre-poll alliance with the BJP and decided to rope in “secular-democratic and like-minded” parties.



This brings to an end months of speculation over a possible tie-up between the AGP and the BJP since some informal negotiations were carried out between their leaders. An alliance between the two parties in the 2001 Assembly election had ended in a disaster.



In Nagaon, AGP (Progressive) president and former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta ruled out the possibility of any truck with the AGP, the party he had helped found. He went on to accuse the AGP of being a stooge of the ruling Congress. He claimed that the Brindaban Goswami-led AGP was working for the ruling Congress and he had evidence of the “AGP’s nexus with the Congress”.



Announcing a tie-up with the JD (U), Mahanta said his party would contest 80 seats.



Briefing newsmen in New Delhi, AGP president Brindaban Goswami said: “After the 2001 Assembly polls, the BJP took a decision never to ally with us. Our policy is to remain equidistant from both the BJP and the Congress.”



Hopes of a pact between the two parties had risen after BJP president Rajnath Singh said possibilities of an agreement were being explored. A BJP source said the differences were mainly over seat-sharing.



In its effort to cobble up an alliance, the AGP has for the past couple of days carried out extensive talks with the CPI and CPI(M) in the capital and hinted at an understanding with the Autonomous State Demand Committee and the Bodo Peoples’ Progressive Front in the state.



Goswami said though his party had decided to contest 100 seats, it would be willing to give up some constituencies to its allies.



Goswami said the AGP will begin selecting candidates within a few days. With the first phase of the elections exactly a month away, the unfolding scenario clearly points at a four cornered contest between the Congress, the BJP, the AGP-led coalition and the conglomerate representing the UDF, the AGP (P), the NCP and others that are also holding talks to finalise the seat sharing.



Apart from these major political parties, there are several other regional militant factions which have announced their decision to enter the poll arena.



A day after the schedule for Assembly elections in Assam was announced, the Holiram Terang faction of the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) released the names of five candidates. The ASDC will contest four seats in Karbi Anglong district and one in North Cachar Hills. These hill areas go to the polls in the second phase on April 10.



Apart from Hauraghat MLA Dharamsingh Teron, party vice-president Jotson Bey and Monsingh Rangpi were the surprise omissions. Party vice-president Jotson Bey claimed the list was “biased, self-serving and devoid of central committee approval”. His stand was echoed by spokesman Alwin Teron and both the sitting party MLAs.



Countering this, a senior ASDC leader said: “The allegation levelled by the quartet is only because of the decision of the central executive to drop Dharamsingh. But as the workers at the grassroots level of Hauraghat do not want him, it would not be wise for us to impose him as a candidate.”





Peace process : ULFA willing to send own team



The banned United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) has expressed its willingness to send its own members to sit for a dialogue with the Centre some time in mid-June.



Novelist and principal negotiator in the peace process, Mamoni Raisom Goswami, announced this at a news conference in Tinsukia after visiting Kakopathar last week. She said the third round of talks between the People’s Consultative Group and the Centre would be held in the middle of March. National security adviser M.K. Narayanan had informed her of the schedule before she left for Kakopathar, Goswami added.



Goswami said there is a strong desire in the ULFA leadership to bring lasting peace to the state and this is why the outfit had exercised maximum restraint in the wake of the Kakopathar incident. Nine persons lost their lives in Kakopathar when police opened fire on a crowd protesting the death of Ajit Mahanta in Army custody on February 10.



“Rebati Phukan and I have been working as co-ordinators between the Centre and the ULFA-constituted PCG and our mission is to provide the launchpad for the direct talks to begin. If the situation remains unchanged and if there is no further incident of violence, we can expect some progress,” Goswami said.



Phukan, a childhood friend of ULFA chief Paresh Barua, said there are certain technicalities which need to be sorted out before direct talks between the outfit and the Centre begin.



“ULFA is engaged in guerrilla warfare with the security forces and so they have some methods of their own. The government will have to show respect for these issues as well, apart from making a clear statement about the jailed leaders and those who went missing during the Bhutan operations,” Phukan said at the news conference.