BJP sews up alliance with AGP

Talks on with Ajit Singh’s RLD.

After renewing its alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are working on finalising common electoral agenda with the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in Uttar Pradesh for the coming Lok Sabha election.

Party’s senior leaders Jaswant Singh and Sushma Swaraj, who had been camping in Guwahati for three days, have finally clinched an electoral tie-up with the Chandra Mohan Patwari-led AGP, which, like the BJP, has two legislators in the Assam Assembly.

A joint communiqué from leaders of the two parties through the BJP headquarters here said that they had “unanimously decided to work together in the Lok Sabha election to free Assam from the tyranny of the Congress misrule”.

The statement said that “the BJP and AGP will work together for permanent solution of basic issues of Assam, like implementation of the Assam Accord, sealing of the India-Bangladesh border, issuing photo identity cards after updating the NRC, permanent solution to flood and erosion problems by declaring them as national problems, restoration of peace in Assam through meaningful political dialogue with militant outfits, and granting ST status to six deserving communities of Assam as recommended by the Assam Assembly”.

The AGP leaders had agreed to re-join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) during their meeting with BJP leader L K Advani last month. However, according to party sources, the tie-up was formalised after prolonged meetings between Swaraj and Singh and the AGP leaders during the last three days.

Meanwhile, highly-placed BJP sources said the talks between party general secretary Arun Jaitley and RLD chief Ajit Singh on forging a combined strategy in West Uttar Pradesh were also expected to be clinched soon.

Ajit Singh’s party has traditionally held sway over the overwhelmingly Jat population of West UP. It has 16 legislators in the UP Assembly. With the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) targeting the scheduled castes and Brahmin voters, the BJP feels an adjustment with the RLD would be beneficial to both.

However, RLD sources said the talks were held up because of the BJP’s adamant stand on a couple of seats. But the BJP sources exuded confidence that the two parties would soon resolve their differences.