AGP, BJP finalise poll pact on 4 LS seats

Staff reporter GUWAHATI, Jan 3 – The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today arrived at sharing of four of 14 seats for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls and further discussions on electoral understanding will resume only after the Magh Bihu festival. The office bearers of both the parties met in the State Assembly premises to discuss seat sharing for the Parliamentary elections and decided that the existing seats of both the parties would be retained. The AGP has its Members of Parliament in Lakhimpur and Dibrugarh constituencies, while, the BJP has Nagaon and Mangaldoi seats. AGP spokesman Apurba Bhattacharya said that the AGP would field its existing MPs-Sarbananda Sonowal in Dibrugarh and Dr Arun Sarma in Lakhimpur. It is up to the leadership of the BJP to decide the candidates of the party.Bhattacharya said that the discussions would resume only after the Magh Bihu and a final shape to the seat sharing arrangement is likely to be given by the end of this month. He said that both the parties today decided to hold meetings with the district committees to ensure smooth coordination between the grass root level workers of the parties in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls. The parties also decided to hold talks with the Assembly constituency level committees to improve coordination between the workers of the AGP and BJP to ensure that the anti-Congress votes are not divided, he added. source: assam tribune