Guwahati, July 3: The Asom Gana Parishad (Pragatisheel) has cleared the air over the snail-paced unification process by making it clear to the AGP that it has no pre-conditions for the reunion of the two parties.

In reply to a letter from the AGP working president, Phani Bhusan Choudhury, AGP (P) vice-president Gunin Hazarika said the party had no condition for the unification. The AGP had earlier said the unification process was bogged down because of the stiff conditions laid down by the AGP (P).

However, the AGP (P) said the issues raised by it during the four rounds of talks should be perceived as proposals and not conditions.

The exchange of letters between the two leaders assumes significance, as a “severe communication gap” had cropped up between the parties on how to go ahead with the unification process even after the AGP’s top leaders approved of the initial report of the 11-member unification committee. Triggering a chain reaction, AGP spokesman Atul Bora said the unity process had run into rough weather as the AGP (P) had insisted on 40 executive berths.

The AGP (P) president, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, refuted this and said his party did not put forward any condition for unification. But as the statement failed to resolve the impasse, Choudhury shot off a one-page letter to the AGP (P) leadership asking it to clarify its position and give suggestions, if any, on how to carry forward the unification move. Setting speculation to rest, Hazarika said his party was for unification of regional parties and it did not have any condition for the same.

In his letter, Hazarika added that his party had given whatever suggestions it had to offer during the four rounds of talks it held with the unification committee of the AGP.

“Yes, we have asked the AGP to accommodate 40 of our members in the executive committee that will be formed after unification. We also want our district committee members to be suitably rehabilitated. But these are proposals and not conditions,” the AGP (P) general secretary said.

The general secretary further said his party was never rigid over the accommodation of its members and that it was always open to negotiations. The AGP top leaders had recently asked the unification committee to hold a few more rounds of negotiations with the AGP (P) to see whether the latter could scale down its demands. The AGP leaders said Hazarika’s letter had settled the issue and put the process back on track.