AGP chief Atul Bora mocks Mahajath for hide-&-seek game of candidates

GUWAHATI: Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) president and agriculture minister Atul Bora today mocked the Congress-led grand alliance of seven parties for some of its allies sending contesting candidates out of the state fearing so-called horse-trading.

“Over the past few days some of the parties are stated to have sent their contesting candidates out of the state just to tarnish the image of the ruling party. It’s quite unfortunate. We don’t believe horse-trading politics,” said Bora.

The Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) has reportedly shifted eight of its candidates to Chhattisgarh and the All India United Democratic Front has reportedly shifted some of its candidates to Rajasthan over the past few days.

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“The people who gave guarantee to the voter a few days ago, today cannot guarantee even their own candidates. That’s why people could not be convinced by their guarantees. Besides, people have already seen decades of Congress rule after Independence,” he mocked referring to the Mahajath’s five-guarantee campaign for the Assam assembly elections.

Asked how many seats the BJP-led ruling alliance would win, Bora, who was claiming that it would win over 100 seats in the 126-member house till a week ago, today refused to pronounce any number, but said it would be a number better than the 2016 elections. The BJP-AGP-BPF alliance had won 86 seats.

Asked who would be the chief minister if the BJP-led alliance comes to power, Bora said: “It will be decided by our big brother (BJP).”

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The statement from the AGP president has endorsed the Congress pre-poll jibe at the regional party of losing its regional character. Congress national spokesman Gourav Vallabh had stated that the AGP was no more in a position to take any decision without prior permission of the BJP top brass in New Delhi.