Bodoland People's Front (BPF) is set to quit the Congress-led "grand alliance" of seven opposition parties barely two months after the debacle in Assembly elections in Assam.
"We have decided to be with the government for development of the Bodoland region. For development, we need government's support, be it at the state or at the Centre," BPF leader and MLA, Durgadas Boro told reporters on Saturday.
He said the decision was taken given the party chief Hagrama Mohilary's stand that BPF would always be with the party in power. "Our party chief had announced this stand time and again, and there is nothing to hide," he said.
Sources in BPF said an official announcement about its decision to quit the Congress-led alliance would be made soon.
BPF was seen as Congress's trump card to wrest power from BJP and its allies in the Assembly elections held in March-April but the alliance won only 50 seats in the House of 126 seats. BJP and its allies won 75 and formed their government for the second consecutive term in Assam. Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF is another major ally of the alliance.
BPF was BJP's ally since 2016 Assembly elections and three of its MLAs were inducted as ministers in Sarbananda Sonowal cabinet. But it joined the Congress-led "grand alliance" of seven opposition parties weeks before the Assembly elections after BJP literally dumped it and contested elections of Bodoland Territorial Council in alliance with BPF's rival UPPL.
BPF was in power in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), an autonomous council, since 2003 but lost it to BJP and UPPL in December last year. In the Assembly elections, BPF won only four of 12 seats it contested in Bodoland region. In 2016, BPF had won all 12 in the Bodoland region.
The development is seen as a setback to the opposition parties ahead of the bye-elections for three Assembly seats, which fell vacant due to death of two MLAs and joining of a senior Congress MLA, Rupjyoti Kurmi in BJP recently.