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

NEW DELHI: AGP President and former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today kept open his party's option of joining hands with BJP 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 AGP will join BJP-led NDA.

Mahanta said BJP has not yet formally approached 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 yesterday in Delhi, Mahanta said due to a personal reason, he could not travel to the national capital.

On whether 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.

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

However, the alliance did not last long and both the parties went their ways with AGP leaving 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 MP 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 and the other in Silchar -- after he was appointed BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate.