The Hindu : National : AGP-BJP tie-up to continue for Assembly polls

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AGP-BJP tie-up to continue for Assembly polls

Sushanta Talukdar

Both parties claim their vote share has gone up
BJP wins 4 out of 7,AGP gets only one seat

Guwahati: The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Sunday announced that the electoral alliance between the two parties will continue till the next Assembly polls due in 2011 notwithstanding the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls. The decision to continue the alliance was announced jointly by AGP President Chandra Mohan Patowary, State BJP President Ramendra Narayan Deka and senior BJP leader Sundhansu Mittal.

Although the AGP could win only one seat of the six seats contested , the poll tie-up helped the BJP to win four of the seven seats contested. Apart from retaining the two seats of Mangaldoi and Nowgong, the BJP regained Gauhati and Silchar seat. The AGP, on the other hand, lost Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur to the Congress and only seat the party won was Tezpur which the regional party’s candidate Joseph Toppo wrested from the sitting Congress MP Moni Kumar Subba.

Leaders of the both the parties claimed that vote share of the two parties had gone up due to the poll tie-up.

Mr. Patowary acknowledged that the minority voters moving away from the AGP could be one of the factors behind party not being able to win more than one seat. He, however, refused to buy the idea that minority voters moved away due to AGP-BJP poll tie-up and attributed it to rise of the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF).

BJP jubilant

While the BJP workers across the State were jubilant over the party’s performance, the AGP offices looked deserted.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday joined party leaders and workers in celebration of the party victory at the national level and also its performance in the State.

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