GUWAHATI: Assam insurgent leader-turned-politician Hagrama Mohilary blamed the state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for Wednesday’s attack on the convoy of United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) chief Pramod Bodo.
Mohilary, who is the president of Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and former chairman of autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), alleged the attack was perpetrated at Sarma’s direction.
“The incident yesterday happened at the direction of Himanta Biswa Sarma. It was also at his direction that (election-related) violence had occurred in Baksa and Udalguri recently,” Mohilary told journalists on Thursday.
The six-vehicle convoy of Pramod Bodo was attacked with stones and wooden planks by the miscreants in the Kokrajhar district on Wednesday evening. Four vehicles were damaged but the occupants escaped unscathed.
Mohilary alleged Sarma had tried to destroy him politically but got no success.
“Himanta Biswa Sarma wanted to destroy me and the Bodo community but failed. We have always worked for peace and people know it. All communities in the BTC stand for peace. By entering BTC areas, Himanta Biswa Sarma tried to create unrest,” Mohilary said.
Sarma was known to be close to the BPF chief but the latter said the friendship between the two was all over. “I have no friendship with Himanta Biswa Sarma now,” Mohilary asserted.
The BPF is a constituent of Assam’s BJP-led coalition government. Sarma has already asserted that the BJP’s alliance with the BPF was for five years and it will expire in next year’s Assembly elections. The BJP has allegedly found a new ally in the BTC in UPPL.
Mohilary exuded confidence the BPF would get at least 30 of the BTC’s 40 seats.
“I have self-confidence. We will fare well in the elections and cross the 30-seat mark. We will form the next government in the BTC,” a confident Mohilary said.
Meanwhile, voting was underway for the second and final phase BTC elections on Thursday. Barring one incident of violence in Chirang district, polling was by and large peaceful so far.
The BPF, which has been in power in the BTC ever since its creation in 2003 as a political solution to Bodo agitation for a separate state, is facing the toughest election this time around. The BTC administers four districts including Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, and Udalguri, all of them falling under Bodoland Territorial Region.