BJP, AGP optimistic over seat-sharing

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 5. The Bharatiya Janata Party-Asom Gana Parishad seat-sharing talks got underway here today but no finality is expected until the AGP discusses the issues raised here with its leadership back in Guwahati.

In the 126-member Assembly, the AGP has already committed itself to giving away 18 seats to Bodos and others, leaving 108 to be divided between the BJP and the AGP. The BJP has begun the negotiations here - two rounds of talks have been held and a third and fourth round is expected to go on till the early hours of the morning - with a claim on at least 50 seats in which it had notched the first and second positions in the 1999 Lok sabha polls. Both sides are optimistic about arriving at a mutually satisfactory settlement within the next two or three days.

The BJP's negotiating team had Mr. Sunil Shastri, general secretary in-charge of Assam, Mr. Bijoy Chakravarty, Union Minister, and Mr. Rajen Gohain, president of the BJP's Assam unit, while the AGP team included Mr. Birendra Baishya, Mr. Chandramohan Pokharia, Mr. Bijoy Sarma, Mr. Pradip Hazarika and Mr. Alam Chaudhury.

The BJP has made it clear that its main objective in joining hands with the AGP is to prevent the Congress from coming to power, and for the moment that suits the AGP too. The only problem for the two parties is that their cadres in Assam are not too happy with this sudden coming together of the parties which were till recently engaged in slinging mud at each other.

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Section  : National
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