GUWAHATI: As expected, former Assam student leader Pramod Bodo has joined the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL).
The 44-year-old had resigned as the president of All Bodo Students’ Union just days after the signing of historic third Bodo peace accord where he was among the signatories along with leaders of four factions of erstwhile insurgent group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).
His joining the UPPL, a party headed by former Rajya Sabha member UG Brahma, ahead of April elections to the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), is likely to give a new dimension to Bodo politics.
Given his massive popularity among people, particularly Bodo youth, the UPPL appointed him as its working president immediately after he had joined the party late Friday evening.
The UPPL has always been there in the BTC poll scene but it could never throw up a challenge to former rebel leader-turned-politician Hagrama Mohilary-led Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) which has been in power in the BTC ever since its creation in 2003 in the aftermath of the Centre’s signing of second Bodo peace accord with erstwhile insurgent group Bodo Liberation Tigers.
This election, however, the BPF is likely to face a contest from the UPPL. Among reasons are anti-incumbency and Pramod’s joining the party. The four NDFB factions are also likely to participate in the polls but they have kept their cards close their chests. If they lend their support to the UPPL, it will only compound the BPF’s problems.
The BJP, which heads Assam’s three-party ruling coalition and is an ally of the BPF, is weighing its options. It has already indicated that it will go either with the BPF or the new party. Speculations were rife recently that the NDFB factions and Pramod will float a party. It appears distant now.
Pramod said the UPPL would decide on its election-centric alignment at the two-day convention of the party which got under way on Friday.
“Our aim is to ensure the implementation of all clauses of the third Bodo peace accord. We firmly believe that their implementation will establish permanent peace and stability in Bodo areas and bring in development in all spheres of life,” he said.
For over ten years, Pramod had led a democratic movement to secure a separate Bodoland state.