APG predent Brindaban Goswami(extreme right) and other senior party leader speak to the media in Guwahati on Saturday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Aug. 30: The Opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has decided to field Bhupen Hazarika as a candidate for the Rajya Sabha “in a mark of protest” if the NDA government at the Centre does not review the list of the President’s nominees for the Upper House and accommodate him.

Announcing the decision at a press conference here this morning, AGP president Brindaban Goswami said the party would formally request Hazarika to accept the offer. He said a meeting of the party’s executive body held last night decided to field Hazarika when its lone representative in the Upper House, Arun Sharma, retires in April next year.

Not to be left behind, the ruling Congress government today expressed dismay over the developments and has moved the Centre to get the nomination reviewed. In a missive to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, chief minister Tarun Gogoi stated, “Dr Hazarika is not only an eminent artiste known, admired and respected in the state but is also one of those rare few who are respected all over the nation. He has dynamically steered Sangeet Natak Akademi in the past couple of years. Nomination of such a personality to the Rajya Sabha would have undoubtedly enhanced the prestige of the Upper House and brought a sense of pride and belonging to the people of Assam.”

Goswami, the leader of the Opposition, claimed that in accordance with the existing agreement signed by his party with the legislature parties of the BJP, the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) and the Bodoland Demand Legislature Party (BDLP) on contesting the Rajya Sabha in a united fashion, it would be the AGP’s turn this time to field a candidate. In the past two Rajya Sabha elections, one candidate each of the BJP and the BDLP was elected to the Upper House by the four-party alliance, he added.

Asked if the party would seek the support of the ruling Congress to make Hazarika a unanimous choice, Goswami said given the party positions in the Assembly, the AGP does not require the support of the ruling party to make their candidate victorious. The combined strength of the four parties is 41 in the 126-member Assembly.

State BJP president Rajen Gohain yesterday suggested that all political parties of the state should take a common stand and unanimously elect Hazarika to the Rajya Sabha.

Accusing the BJP of toeing the Congress line in neglecting Assam and the region, AGP president Brindaban Goswami said, “It was not only an insult to the great artiste but to all sections of people from the Northeast. Bhupen Hazarika today is not merely an artiste, he has become an institution.”

In the fax message to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the AGP chief said, “By dropping the name of Bhupen Hazarika at the eleventh hour, it reveals that this region is still neglected.”