Guwahati: The BJP will not ally with the Bodo Peoples' Front (BPF) for the next year's assembly elections in Assam, senior party leader Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Thursday. The BJP has already severed ties with the BPF for the upcoming Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) polls.
The BJP allied with BPF during the 2016 assembly polls for five years but after this period the alliance will not be renewed, Sarma said while addressing a press conference. "It is for the BPF to read the writing on the wall," Sarma, a powerful minister in the Assam government who heads the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance, said.
Even as three BPF MLAs continue to be ministers in the Sarbananda Sonowal-led government in the state, the two parties are engaged in a bitter war of words as the campaigning for the BTC polls picks up. Further, BPF Rajya Sabha MP Bishwanath Daimary recently announced that he will soon switch over to the BJP.
The BJP is contesting 27 of the 40 seats in the BTC polls, engaging in a direct contest with the BPF. Elections to the BTC will be held in two phases — December 7 and 10, while votes will be counted on December 12.
Elections for the first phase will be held in constituencies in Udalguri and Baksa districts. In the second phase, seats in Kokrajhar and Chirang districts will go to the polls. Altogether 72 candidates are in the fray for the 40- member council whose term ended on April 27 but elections had to be deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The elections are being held after a fresh Bodo Accord was signed in New Delhi on January 27 by leaders of all the four factions of the NDFB, then All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) chief Pramod Boro, then BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. The council is currently being administered under the supervision of Governor Jagadish Mukhi.
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