GUWAHATI: In poll-bound Assam, the AGP and the BJP have suffered splits with sections of disgruntled leaders floating breakaway factions in protest against the alliance forged between the two parties.
As per their seat-sharing arrangement, the AGP will contest in 24 of the 126 seats while the BJP will contest in some 80 seats. The BJP has left around 20 seats to the Bodoland People’s Front in Bodoland Territorial Areas District following an alliance. Leaders of the newly floated Trinamool BJP and AGP Anchalikatabadi Mancha said they will field candidates in all the 24 constituencies the AGP is contesting. The AGP Anchalikatabadi Mancha will be headed by former AGP youth wing president Sunil Rajkonwar. “An alliance is struck with friends and not with enemies. The BJP has hatched a conspiracy against AGP, killing the party slowly,” a AGP Anchalikatabadi Mancha leader asked.
There are reports doing the rounds that more AGP workers and leaders, including former Minister Biraj Kumar Sarma, will defect to the AGP breakaway faction in the coming days. Biswajit Phukan, who is close to BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, is the convenor of the Trinamool BJP.