The battle lines are drawn for the Assembly polls scheduled for April 7 and 11 in Assam with major political parties fine tuning its alliances and “tactical understanding”, a word very popular among the political parties during the ensuing elections in Assam.
While the ruling Congress Party, facing anti-incumbency of two consecutive terms, is set to have a “tactical understanding” or “friendly contest” with Bodoland People’s Front in the Bodoland Territorial Council, the Opposition political parties are divided but unanimous in their objective of defeating the ruling Congress.
The AGP has also floated the idea of not fielding candidates against the leaders of Opposition political parties in an obvious anticipation that others will reciprocate. If insiders are to be believed the Opposition political parties are closing in on some hidden tactical understanding to ensure the defeat of the Congress, looking confident to return for the third term in Assam.
Even after several rounds of failed talks, the Left political parties have not given up the hope of polarising the non-Congress and non-BJP Opposition alliance, the AGP however is yet to come out of its dilemma of remaining secular with the Left and AIUDF or go saffron with the BJP.
The political observers attribute this dilemma of AGP to the ongoing cold war for the leadership between president Chandra Mohan Patowary and Leader of Opposition Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. If insiders are to be believed, Mr Patowary is reluctant to give much space to former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who is a better crowd as well as vote puller in the Opposition camp. The political observers however see this clash of ego between the leaders of AGP as a serious setback.