Guwahati: In what has come as serious embarrassment for the regional Asom Gana Parishad which re-joined the BJP led alliance on assurance of reviewing the stand of BJP on citizenship amendment bill, the BJP on Monday in its manifesto promised to pass the citizenship bill if voted to power.
Releasing its manifesto- Sankalp Patra, for the LS polls, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said that Citizenship Amendment Bill would be passed in the next five years.
Contradicting the popular perception created by the state leadership that the BJP will go slow on CAB at least till April 11, when the first phase voting will take place in Assam, the BJP on Monday asserted that CAB was on.
In the first phase of polling the constituencies — Lakhimpur, Dibrugarh, Koliabor, Jorhat and Tezpur, going to poll are considered to be very sensitive to citizenship amendment bill.
However, Assam BJP is of view that the people of Assam has dumped the CAB issue and moved on. “Had CAB been issue, we would not have got such upsurge of support. It is a dead issue provoked by a section of media and the left wing intellectual class of Assam,” said Assam BJP president Ranjeet Dass, hailing the manifesto of the party released on Monday at New Delhi.
Ignoring the chorus of political offensive launched by All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS) the BJP prresidednt said that the BJP has also promised to take steps to protect the linguistic, cultural and social identity of the Northeastern states.
However, senior AGP leader and two-time chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on Monday said, “I don’t know whether BJP leadership has taken the AGP into confidence or not before making this announcement but BJP should have avoided such announcement.
The AGP has not changed its stand on citizenship amendment bill as yet.”
Miffed by the BJP’s support for the bill, former chief minister and AGP legislator Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has not only been opposing the alliance with the BJP but also decided to stay away from campaigning. He had even appealed to the voters to back candidates opposing the bill.
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