The cracks in Assam’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance partner, the Asom Gana Parishad, widened on Tuesday over the party’s stance on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), with a section demanding the removal of several top leaders.
Former Chief Minister and the founding chairman of AGP, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who is opposed to the CAA, has urged party workers to fight against the law as it was six years against illegal migrants after violating the Assam Accord signed in 1985 After the movement of.
Mahant and others along with party president Atul Bora (who is a minister in the state government) and two other ministers in the state cabinet, Keshav Mahant and Phani Bhushan Chaudhary for supporting the CAA and participating in events organized by the BJP Are held for For controversial legislation.
Mahanta said in a meeting held here from Guwahati Nagaon and Tezpur to exchange ideas at the grassroots level, “These leaders should have supported the party’s support and opposed the CAA, but they are participating in the rallies. ”
“Those who support the CAA should join the BJP,” he urged party workers to come together and oppose the law.
On Tuesday, the party leadership barred Mahant and others from holding a meeting at the AGP headquarters by locking the building’s gate, forcing the former to relocate to another nearby location.
“Mahant’s views are not of the party. If he has any issue, he should raise it on the party platform. The events we participated in were not BJP events, but were organized by the government, ”AGP leader and minister Phani Bhushan Chaudhary told reporters.
In January 2019, the AGP partnered with the BJP in Assam and party ministers resigned from the state cabinet after passing the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha.
He returned to the coalition after the bill was returned in March when the government failed to introduce it in the Rajya Sabha.
Assam has been staging massive protests by various student bodies, political parties, and indigenous groups against the CAA for the past several months. Six people have died in protests involving violence. Five of them died in the police firing.
Protests against the CAA continued in Assam on Tuesday. The BJP organized a peace rally in Bishwanath in support of the law, while indigenous groups and student bodies demonstrated against the law.
The lone AGP MP in the Rajya Sabha had voted in favor of the law, sparking resentment in the party. Later in December, the AGP filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the amended Citizenship Act.