New regional parties in Assam unlikely to merge; could join hands for 2021 polls

The new parties have been floated by personalities and organisations that were at the forefront of the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019 stir in the state and espouse the protection of the rights of the indigenous communities in Assam

Several new regional political parties have formed in Assam with the intention of dislodging the ruling coalition, headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the upcoming assembly polls that are likely to be held in the end of March and early April next year.

Election Commission officials seal an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at a polling station in Dibrugarh, Assam. (Representational Photo/AFP File)

Three parties -- Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), Anchalik Gana Morcha (AGM) and United Regional Party-Assam (URPA) -- have been formed and another outfit by peasant leader Akhil Gogoi’s Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) is set to be announced later this week.

“We waited until September 20 for the AJP to come together with us and form a united regional party. We will announce our new party this week because there was no positive response from them (the AJP),” Bhasco De Saikia, who is the president of the KMSS, told media persons on Sunday.

The new parties have been floated by personalities and organisations that were at the forefront of the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019 stir in the state and espouse the protection of the rights of the indigenous communities in Assam.

Journalist-turned-Rajya Sabha (RS) member Ajit Bhuyan has floated the AGM.

Eminent filmmaker Jahnu Barua is one of the guiding forces behind the URPA.

The regional parties will take on the ruling BJP-Asom Gana Parishad (AGP)-Bodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF) and the grand alliance announced by opposition Congress and perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).

“We want all regional forces to come together to fight the upcoming assembly polls. There is no other alternative in a bid to counter the ruling BJP-led combine and the Congress-AIUDF alliance,” said Jagadish Bhuyan, coordinator of the AJP.

“But any decision on that would have to wait until November when AJP’s first political convention takes place, the party office-bearers are announced and a constitution is adopted,” he added.

Bhuyan stressed that contrary to the view that the AJP is not in favour of all regional parties coming together his outfit strongly favours all the new political formations and the existing regional parties uniting under a single platform for the next year’s assembly polls.

“We are of the view that we might not have one party, one flag and one symbol. But all regional forces must join hands to fight against the ruling BJP-led coalition and the Congress-AIUDF alliance,” said KMSS’s Saikia.

Besides the AJP, the AGM, the URPA and the KMSS’s yet-to-be-named party, the existing regional outfits such as the Asom Songrami Mancha (ASM) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are also expected to join the platform.

“We welcome formation of the new parties, but that’s not going to affect our prospects in next year’s assembly polls. Our party has 42 lakh members and if each of them brings in just one additional vote we will get 84 lakh votes, which will be enough for a win,” Ranjeet Kumar Dass, BJP’s Assam unit chief had told HT recently.

Congress’s Assam unit chief Ripun Bora told media persons last week that his party would want the AJP and all the other regional parties to join the Congress-AIUDF alliance if they were serious about dislodging the BJP from power.

A few more political outfits are likely to be formed before the next year’s assembly polls.