Anti-CAA agitation in Assam may give birth to a new political party ahead of Assembly polls

The agitation in Assam against the Centre's Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) may give birth to a new regional political party ahead of Assembly elections slated next year.

A group of senior leaders of the influential All Assam Students' Union (AASU), which has been leading the movement against CAA is meeting all local organisations and students' bodies to join hands and launch the political party ahead of elections. They want to field candidates against the ruling BJP and two of its major regional allies, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People's Front in order to garner the voters' sentiments against the CAA.

"We must join hands and give the BJP and its allies a reply with ballots. We are in talks with all organisations, who had either fought against the CAA with us or separately. Before 2016 elections, the BJP had promised to protect identity, culture and land of the indigenous people but they did the opposite by passing the Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeks to offer citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan till 2014," AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said.

"Indigenous people had taken to the streets to protest the CAA and since the BJP did not listen to their voices, they will give a befitting reply with the ballots," Gogoi said.

Assam roared in protest in December after the Centre passed the CAA. The protest even turned violent in Guwahati and some other places leading to curfew and restriction on mobile internet for more than a week.

Gogoi also hinted that the new regional party would not support the Congress and would try to make its mark as a regional force representing the dissenting voices against both the BJP and the Congress. "Both the BJP and the Congress are the same. They don't care about indigenous identity," he said.

In 1985, the AGP was formed similarly after the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement. AASU leaders led by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and Bhrigu Kumar Phukan had formed the AGP and won elections against the Congress. Mahanta became the chief minister twice in 1985 and 1996 but the AGP lost power again to the Congress mainly due to its alleged failure to solve the "illegal migration" issue.

The AASU and other organisations opposing the CAA want that all post-1971 migrants, irrespective of their religion must be detected and deported to Bangladesh.