Assam ruling parties to continue alliance

By Barun Das Gupta

GUWAHATI, MARCH 26.Leaders of the four-party ruling alliance which met here last night decided to continue the alliance, thus setting at rest speculations that the two Communist parties might pull out of it.

In fact, a senior CPI leader had told this correspondent last Tuesday that the party rank and file was putting pressure on the leadership to quit the alliance as, in their view, the AGP had become so unpopular that going into the coming Assembly polls as an ally of the AGP would harm the CPI.

The source had said that the State Executive of his party, which was going to meet on March 24 and 25, would take a formal decision to pull out of the alliance, following which Mr. Promode Gogoi, the CPI Minister in the State Cabinet, would resign.

In the event, the opposite happened. The State Executive decided to stick with the AGP and sink or swim with it.

The CPI(M) also gave broad hints that it might come out of the alliance if the AGP reached an electoral understanding with the United Minorities Front (UMF). The UMF, according to the CPI(M), is a communal and ``Islamic fundamentalist'' party.

The CPI(M) State secretary, Mr. Hemen Das, explained today that there was,in fact, no four-party ``alliance'' as such. ``This is a term coined by the Press'', he said.

He said at last night's meeting all the four parties had agreed to continue to oppose both the BJP and the Congress.

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Section  : Other States
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