After losing the election battle of the municipal bodies and town committees, the ruling Congress in Assam is trying to find some ‘like-minded’ allies for the forthcoming elections to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). The election in the council is likely to be held in the first week of April, before the Rongali Bihu.
The Bodoland Territorial Council will go to polls in April this year and Bodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF), which has been a long time ally of the Congress and has been in power in the council since its inception in 2003, had also severed its ties with the Congress last year due to some differences. Officials of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) said that the ruling party is now looking for some like-minded political parties for the BTC polls.
“We are not going to the polls with the former partner BPF this time. However, we are open to join hands with any other “secular” force for the election,” said APCC president Anjan Dutta. “The Congress is going to the majority party and will form Government in the council,” Dutta said.
It may be mentioned here that in June last year, the BPF broke its 8-year-old alliance with the ruling Congress in Assam accusing the party of non-cooperation in development in the four districts of Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD)-Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri.
“The Congress had not done any developmental works in BTAD in last several years. We have severed the ties with the party and now we are going to the polls alone. I am sure people will vote us to power again in the council for overall development of the BTAD,” said chief executive member of the BTC Hagrama Mohilary, who is also the president of the BPF.
The BJP, on the other hand, has also announced that it would go to the BTC polls alone. “The BJP will contest on its own in all the constituencies. We are going to the polls alone,” said an upbeat BJP spokesman.
The newly floated People’s Coordination for Democratic Rights (PCDR), a conglomeration of several non-Bodo organisations of the BTAD, has also decided to contest in all the 40 constituencies of BTC in the forthcoming elections.