Assam student bodies form political party
GUWAHATI:
Two of Assam’s biggest student organisations, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), came together on Monday to formally announce the formation of a new political party, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), ahead of next year’s assembly elections.
The new regional party is among several outfits that have formally launched recently or are in the process of being formed. Both the AASU and the AJYCP had earlier formed a 16-member advisory committee of prominent personalities to suggest a way forward. Based on their suggestions, the decision to form a new political party “to secure the future of Assam and Assamese people” was taken.
“Work on our party begins from now. The organisation set up across all districts will be completed by October and the party’s state-level political convention will be held in November,” said Basanta Deka, former professor of Handique Girls College, one of the two convenors of the advisory committee.
He added that the new party will follow the slogan, “ghore ghore ami (we are in each household)” with the aim of reaching out to every house across Assam ahead of the next polls in the eastern state ruled by a coalition of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF).
“The constitution of the party is nearly complete and its aims and ideologies would be unveiled at a later date. The party’s flag, symbol and office-bearers would be announced at the November convention,” said former Gauhati University professor Krishnagopal Bhattacharya, the other convenor.
This will be the second political party to be formed by leaders belonging to the AASU, after the AGP, which came into being in 1985 after the signing of the Assam Accord that ended the six-year-long anti-foreigner agitation that saw an active participation of both the AASU and the AJYCP.
Both these organisations spearheaded the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) stir in the state, opposing the Centre’s move to grant citizenship to religious minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan—which many in Assam feared would lead to large scale influx of Bangladeshis to the border state.
Activist Akhil Gogoi’s Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), another outfit that took part in the anti-CAA stir, has announced its plan to launch a political party.
Journalist-turned-politician Ajit Bhuyan, who became a Rajya Sabha MP earlier this year with support of Congress and the AIUDF, too has floated an outfit called Anchalik Gana Morcha (AGM). Lawyer Arun Borbora launched the United Regional Party, Assam, last month.
