AGP to come out of ruling coalition if Assam interest affected

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), coalition partner of the ruling BJP in Assam, today said it would not hesitate to come out of the alliance if the state's interest is affected and reiterated that it would not accept granting of Indian citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindus.

"We may be ministers, but it will not take us a second to come out of the coalition. Assam's interest, and not being in power, is of prime importance to us," AGP president Atul Bora said at a rally of booth level party workers.

The AGP chief's assertions could be seen in the backdrop of the upcoming panchayat election, supposed to be held later this year.

"Granting of Indian citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindus is not acceptable to us," Bora, also the state's agriculture minister, said.

The BJP and the Central government have been trying to amend the Citizenship Act to grant citizenship to people without valid documents from minority communities - Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians - from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Asking the workers to strengthen the party at the grassroot level, Bora asked them to always stand with the people as the party has always done.

"Go ahead flying the flag of victory in every election," Bora told the party workers.

Former chief minister and the party's founding president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said, only the AGP can protect the interest of 'jati, mati, bheti' (people, motherland and home) in Assam.

"If you look back to the times of the AGP government, there was no communal tension then," he said.

AGP leader and Science & Technology Minister Kesab Mahanta demanded that the historic Assam Accord 1985 be implemented in full and the recurring floods of the Brahmaputra be taken up as a national agenda.