Assam polls: Raijor Dal urges AJP to take forward discussions on forming alliance

Assam's newly floated political party Raijor Dal on Sunday urged another regional outfit Asom Jatiyo Parishad (AJP) to take forward discussions on forming a pre-poll alliance.

Elections to the 126-member Assam assembly are due in March-April.

Working presidents of the outfit, helmed by jailed RTI activist Akhil Gogoi, wrote a letter to AJP chief Lurinjyoti Gogoi, requesting him to decide on a date to hold discussions on forming the alliance.

"The alliance must be given priority as the prevailing situation and anti-people policies of the BJP demands it," the letter read.

"Our party president had given a call to all regional parties to unite and form a party with one flag, one symbol but now though there are two new regional parties, we can still form an alliance in the interest of the state and its people," it said.

The ruling BJP government's bowing to the Centre's anti-Assam policies has convinced the democratic people of the state that the Raijor Dal and the AJP must come together, the letter read.

Gogoi later told reporters that the AJP has already decided on the alliance and there are no "ifs and buts" regarding this.

"We are proceeding in the right direction and I urge people to be patient as everything will fall in place at the right time," he said.

The Raijor Dal, however, has decided not to enter into an alliance with the AIUDF, which it has labelled as a "communal party like the BJP".

The Raijor Dal was established by the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) while the AJP was floated by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and the Asom Jatiyotabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) in the aftermath of the anti-CAA stir in the state.

The agitation, spearheaded by the AASU, AJYCP and the KMSS, saw the deaths of five persons and the arrest and imprisonment of Akhil Gogoi.