Assam, March 3: The BJP and its two Assam allies — the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) “almost finalized” their seat-sharing pact for the Assam Polls and a formal announcement will be made in a day or two, sources said.
As per sources, the “agreement on 99 per cent” of the seats was discussed at a high-level meeting attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President J P Nadda, and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at Shah’s residence.
BJP’s state unit chief Ranjit Dass, AGP President, and state minister Atul Bora, UPPL chief Pramod Boro, BJP leader, and state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma were also a part of the meeting.
However, a formal announcement regarding the number of seats each party will contest on will be made in a day or two, the sources said.
Assam has 126 assembly constituencies.
The sources further added that the AGP, which won 14 constituencies in the 2016 assembly elections is expected to contest 25 seats, while the UPPL, which is a new partner of the BJP and does not have any MLA now, is likely to get around 12 seats to contest.
The BJP, which had won 60 seats in 2016, will contest the rest of the constituencies.
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The BPF (Bodoland People’s Front), which was part of the BJP-led alliance, had won 12 seats in 2016. The regional party recently joined the opposition Congress-led ‘Mahajoot‘.
The BJP leaders met separately at the residence of Nadda after the meeting to scrutinize the list of the party’s candidates for the polls.
The BJP Central Election Committee, comprising top leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet on Thursday to approve the first list of candidates.
