AGP keeping open option of joining hands with BJP for LS polls

Asom Gana Parishad President and former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on Wednesday kept open his party's option of joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party for Lok Sabha polls, saying a decision will be taken soon.

"I am not ruling it in or ruling it out. The party will take a a decision soon," he told PTI over phone when asked whether the AGP will join BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

Mahanta said the BJP has not yet formally approached the AGP for an electoral alliance in Assam.

"So far there has been no discussion with any national party," he said. There are 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam. Asked why did he not join the meeting of the Third Front on Tuesday in Delhi, Mahanta said due to a personal reason, he could not travel to the national capital.

On whether the AGP will be part of the Third Front, the two-time Assam chief minister said the party's highest decision-making body will take the final call on forging alliance for the general elections.

The AGP and the BJP had an electoral alliance for the 2009 Lok Sabha polls in Assam in which BJP got four seats while the AGP got just one.

However, the alliance did not last long and both the parties went their ways with the AGP leaving the NDA.

Current BJP state President Sarbananda Sonowal is a former AGP Lok Sabha member and many of the state BJP leaders are former AGP members including Guwahati member of Parliament and a minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, Bijoya Chakraborty.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has already addressed two public rallies in Assam -- one in Guwahati and the other in Silchar -- after he was appointed the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.