Guwahati, Feb. 8: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today made a scathing attack on his rivals, the AGP and the BJP, as the Congress geared up for the Lok Sabha election by holding a two-day training camp for Youth Congress activists.

Describing both the AGP and the BJP as “two sides of the same coin and bereft of any ideology”, he said the two should merge instead of one playing second fiddle.

Addressing the Youth Congress activists at Manabendra Sharma Complex here, he said the AGP had diluted its regional character and was trying to enter into an electoral alliance with the BJP.

“Goswami (AGP chief Brindaban Goswami) has sent feelers to the BJP high command for an electoral alliance,” Gogoi alleged, maintaining that both the parties were trying to hoodwink people by denying a tie-up possibility between them.

“They are the opportunists. They have no ideology. They are only guided by one principle that is how to capture power,” Gogoi said.

He said one should not read too much in all the “good things proclaimed by Brindaban Goswami who is no different from former AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta”.

Taking a dig on the Goswami’s much-hyped victory over Mahanta in the party president election, Gogoi said “Goswami was acting as if he has conquered the world”.

“It was, however, a different matter that the Mahanta camp claimed that Goswami had used Ulfa-Sulfa to ensure his victory,” he said sarcastically.

Gogoi said the AGP was responsible for introducing “corruption culture” in the state. “It was during the AGP’s first tenure in 1985 that corruption became rampant in the state,” he said adding that the party introduced secret killing during its second tenure.

Gogoi also did not miss the opportunity to take a dig at the AGP leaders for signing the historic Assam Accord.

He said the then AASU leaders did not sign the accord in 1980 with the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as they were not old enough to contest an election.

“In 1985 when they became eligible to contest elections, they signed the accord. They even accepted the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, which they were now asking to scrap,” he said.

Gogoi also ridiculed the NCP leader Purno A. Sangma, saying that he was a big leader without any follower. “He is a leader of himself,” he said jocularly.

Addressing a press conference, Gogoi said the NDA government had shown its utter disregard for the northeastern region in the interim budget, adding that all talks about giving special initiatives to the Northeast by the NDA leaders were mere “hogwash”.

“If they are so sincere about the development of the region, why did they slash the North Eastern Council (NEC)’s budget despite including Sikkim in the council?” he asked.

The Assam Pradesh Youth Congress has organised the two-day state level training camp for its office bearers from today.

Congress working committee member and in-charge of the party’s frontal wing Mukul Wasnik will address the training camp tomorrow.