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Guwahati, Jan. 28: The underlying tension between the Congress and its coalition partner, the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), appears to have taken a turn for the worse. The BPF today announced that it would lodge a formal complaint with the state election commission against Congress leader and parliamentary secretary (home) Bhupen Bora for his alleged defamatory remarks about the regional party.
BPF Rajya Sabha MP Biswajit Daimary today said that the party would submit its complaint against Bora to the state election commission tomorrow.
He said they would also furnish a CD of the speech made by Bora yesterday against the BPF during a Congress campaign rally for the panchayat polls at Bihpuria in Lakhimpur district of Assam.
Daimary said Bora had said an AK-47 rifle should be the election symbol of the BPF, alleging that the Bodo political party could have played a role in last year’s communal clashes in the Bodoland Territorial Council.
According to Daimary, at the rally Bora had also appealed to the voters not to allow BPF a toehold in Upper Assam as the party would create communal strife as it did in the BTC.
“We strongly condemn his remarks. The language used by Bora was unparliamentary and unbecoming of a person holding an important post in the government,” the BPF leader said.
He said they would also take up the matter with chief minister Tarun Gogoi and PCC chief Bhubaneswar Kalita.
He said the BPF has not fielded any candidate in Upper Assam for the panchayat polls.
The BPF MP said the party has remained a reliable ally of the Congress in the state since 2006 and it would continue to do so.
Daimary said they believe that these were Bora’s personal remarks and not that of the Congress.
“No candidate in Bora’s home district Lakhimpur or in any other place in Upper Assam is contesting the panchayat election on the BPF symbol,” Daimary said.
He said Bora is making such statements against the BPF as his popularity in his constituency, Bihpuria, “which is predominantly inhabited by tribal people” is fast eroding because of his failure to carry out any development work. As a result, he is now apprehensive that the BPF may take advantage.
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