Cong ally shift candidates to C’garh

Move amid poaching fears by BPF ■ 9 out of 11 candidates in resort near Raipur

Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), an electoral ally of Congress in Assam, has shifted its candidates to Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh fearing horse-trading.

Sources said nine out of 11 candidates of the party landed in Raipur on Monday and were taken to a private resort on the outskirts of the state capital.

“Nine candidates of BPF along with half-a-dozen senior leaders of the party arrived here. They were taken to a resort on the outskirts of Raipur. They are scheduled to spend their ‘vacation’ in

Chhattisgarh till May 2 when the results of the Assam Assembly polls are scheduled to be announced”, a senior Congress leader told this newspaper here requesting not to be quoted.

Sources said Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, who was appointed poll observer by the Congress for the Assembly elections in Assam, greeted the BPF candidates after they arrived in Raipur.

When contacted by this newspaper, media cell chief of Congress in Chhattisgarh Sailesh Nitin Trivedy, however, said he was not aware of the development.

“Let me verify it”, he said. The three-phase Assembly polls in Assam, which ended on April 6, promises to throw up a nail-biting verdict with the ruling BJP locked in a keen contest with 10-party Opposition grand alliance led by the Congress.

On Sunday, Pramila Rani Verma, the only BPF candidate who stayed put in Assam, told the local media in Guwahati that other party candidates left Assam on Saturday.

Assam’s minority-based All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), another constituent of Congress-led grand alliance, sent all its candidates to Congress-ruled Rajasthan in a chartered plane to thwart any bid by the BJP to poach them.

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Ghelot has sponsored their stay in Rajasthan.

Mr Baghel’s Chhattisgarh model of poll strategy which returned the Congress to power in the state after a gap of 15 years was said to have been implemented in the Assembly polls in Assam to bring the Congress back to power in the Northeast state.

◗ WHEN CONTACTED by this newspaper, media cell chief of Congress in Chhattisgarh Sailesh Nitin Trivedy, however, said he was not aware of the development