Guwahati: Ahead of 2021 assembly polls, two of Assam’s biggest student organizations, All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) came together on Monday to formally announce the formation of a new political party named Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP).
AJP, with its slogan and the agenda, is seeking to emerge as a strong, inclusive and permanent regional alternative to the BJP and the Congress by securing the interests of the state in next year’s Assembly polls, its convenors Krishna Gopal Bhattacharya and Basanta Deka announced in Guwahati.
Both AASU and AJYCP had earlier formed a 16-member advisory committee of prominent personalities to suggest a way forward and based on their suggestions the decision to form a new political party “to secure the future of Assam and Assamese people” was taken. The new party will follow the slogan-‘ghore ghore ami’ (we are in each household) with the aim of reaching out to every home across Assam ahead of next year’s assembly polls.
Incidentally, this will be the second political party to be formed by AASU leaders after Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in 1985, which was the outcome of the six-year-old Assam Movement against illegal foreigners. Now, the Centre’s move to impose the contentious citizenship amendment act, which most see as a threat to Assamese identity and culture, triggered the formation of the AJP. The formation of the AJP will pose a direct challenge to the AGP, which has lost its regional character, the AASU and AJYCP leaders say.