Guwahati: Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Tuesday admitted that it failed to win the minority seats it had hoped to secure for the NDA.BJP leaders, including CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, repeatedly said BJP had no chance of winning in about 22 Muslim-majority seats. When AGP announced its list of 26 candidates for the assembly polls, 13 of them were Muslims. They contested from Muslim-majority seats in lower and southern Assam for NDA.AGP was born out of the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement (1979-85) against illegal influx. During that movement, many Bengali-speaking Muslims were targeted. However, with a relatively secular image among NDA partners, AGP contested in most of the 22 Muslim-majority seats that have Bengali-speaking Muslims of Bangladesh origin.“We contested in minority-inhabited seats but lost. Congress won these seats, but one day minority people will reject them,” AGP president Atul Bora said while responding to the party’s poor performance in Muslim-majority seats. Some senior leaders from Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF, including MLAs, joined AGP days before the elections and contested the polls, but they suffered humiliating defeats.Bora said Congress exploited minorities and tea garden workers for years. While Congress was routed in tea belt constituencies this time, Bora predicted Congress would next be defeated in Muslim-majority seats as well. Congress contested 99 seats in this election but won only 19, all of them Muslim-majority seats. Of the 19 Congress winners, 18 are Muslim candidates.AGP improved its tally from nine to 10 in this election, with most of its victories coming from lower Assam.Further, Bora said the public rejection of Congress showed the party had no future. “The party’s goals were merely to increase its vote bank, engage in corruption, and support illegal migrants. Today, Congress lacks any public support. Once, the tea garden workers trusted Congress, but seeing the current state of the party, they have distanced themselves. BJP-led govt ushered development in tea belt, improving education and healthcare,” Bora said, adding that AGP is a secular party and has received a significant number of minority votes this time despite defeat.Bora also took a swipe at Congress’s regional ally, Assam Jatiya Parishad. Without naming it, he said the party (AJP) that believed it could threaten NDA by aligning with Congress was completely rejected by the people of Assam. “The curtain has fallen on the imaginary govt that was in place in Assam under Congress-led alliance for the past month,” Bora said.The first AGP legislative party meeting will be held at the party headquarters in Ambari on Wednesday, where its leader in the assembly will be elected.
