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Alarmed by the Bharatiya Janata Party's sudden decision to tie up with the ruling Asom Gana Parishad for the Assembly polls in Assam, the Congress state unit Tuesday postponed its selection process until new equations emerge.
The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee executive committee, which met in New Delhi on Sunday night, identified the Communist Party of India as a potential alliance partner. The CPI is a member of the four-party ruling alliance under the AGP. "We will wait for the situation to develop and if the CPI pulls out of the ruling four-party alliance, we will invite it to join us," a senior party leader said.
In fact, the realignment of political equations in Assam may have just begun with the Congress proposing to launch a common platform with the CPI and minority parties to oppose the AGP-BJP front.
The Congress which was finalising its list of candidates, stalled it halfway through on Sunday. Top state Congress leaders had a hasty meeting, to redraw the party's strategy to fight the election by itself. The consensus was that the party would have to consolidate anti- AGP and BJP forces to avoid a split in the majority Hindu votes.
The Congress has traditionally depended on the tea belt. A BJP-AGP alliance could make a huge dent in this Congress stronghold. On the other hand, Congress leaders are confident that that its minority vote base will further consolidate following the AGP's decision to align with the BJP.
The Congress state election committee resumed its sitting since on Tuesday afternoon, finalising candidates for seats which would not be offered to alliance partners. The selection of candidates for around 30 constituencies has been held back and is likely to be finalised only after seat-sharing arrangements are over, party sources said.
Meanwhile, APCC president Tarun Gogoi told newspersons in Delhi that the doors for an alliance are open and they would like to talk to any like-minded party. He indicated that they favoured an alliance with the CPI.
The Assam Congress plans, however, may go awry and its alliance proposal with the Left parties may not go down well with their counterparts in West Bengal, where the Congress and Trinamul Congress' Mamata Banerjee have vowed to overthrow the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxists Government. Both states are going to the polls simultaneously on May 10.
The APCC leadership, which is aware of the constraints, deliberately kept out the CPI-M from the alliance proposal, apprehending a sharp reaction from West Bengal.
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