Regional parties may play big role in Assam polls

By Sujit Chakraborty Guwahati, Feb 4 : In the run-up to the Assam Assembly elections, the state’s regional parties are consolidating themselves to ensure multi-cornered fight and diminishing chances of the traditional bipolar politics.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) already announced to continue its alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and to forge a coalition with new ally United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) after discarding present ally Bodo Peoples’ Front (BPF).
Meanwhile, the main opposition Congress also formed a “Mahagathbandhan” (grand alliance) with three Left parties — the CPI-M, the CPI, the CPI-MLL — as well as the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and the Anchalik Gana Morcha, regional parties having a political base among the Muslims and indigenous people respectively.
In the latest development, on Thursday, two major regional parties — the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and the Raijor Dal (RD) — announced they would fight the ensuing polls together, leaving the other two combinations wary. Both the AJP and the RD are offshoots of the violent agitations against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in 2019.
Former All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) leader Lurinjyoti Gogoi, who recently floated the AJP, announced the alliance, after a three-hour-long meeting on Thursday with the jailed leader Akhil Gogoi, also the the supremo of Raijor Dal.
Gogoi, who was jailed immediately after he led the agitations against the CAA in December 2019, is currently undergoing treatment for his various ailments at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.