No BJP-Bodo People’s Front alliance for 2024 polls: Himanta

Guwahati, Nov 17 (IANS) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the state’s ruling BJP will not forge an alliance with the Bodo People’s Front (BPF) for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

On Thursday, a day after holding a meeting with BJP allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL), the Chief Minister told reporters: “Although (BPF chief) Hagrama Mohilary supported us in the Rajya Sabha polls, the BPF is not included in our alliance.”

In the 2021 state Assembly polls, the BJP had teamed up with the UPPL in Bodoland to fight the polls.

At the time, the BPF was in an alliance with the Congress and had struggled to get a good number of seats in Bodoland.

This resulted in Mohilary abandoning the alliance with Congress.

In recent days, he held meetings with some key RSS members and speculations were rife that he may join the BJP.

Assam BJP president Bhabesh Kalita had also hinted that the BPF may find a place in the BJP-led NDA.

In the past, Mohilary and Sarma had shared a good equation, with the latter beingthe key person when the BPF first forged an alliance with the Congress in the run-up to the 2006 Assembly polls.

The equation however changed later and the two were seen involved in verbal duels.

Sarma even claimed that Mohilary was involved in large-scale corruption in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) and he may face a jail term as a result.

The Chief Minister also brought Mohilary’s arch rival Pramod Bodo’s UPPL into the BJP’s fold.

–IANS

tdr/ksk