BJP asks ULFA to fight polls
Guwahati | February 19, 2006 6:15:06 PM IST
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=254099&n_date=20060219&cat=India
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday called on the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to shun the path of violence and contest the upcoming assembly elections in Assam.
"It will be better for the ULFA to first shun violence and then contest the assembly polls and come to power," senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan told a rally in Assam's main city Guwahati.
Mahajan and BJP president Rajnath Singh were here to kick-start the party's campaign for the elections expected in April-May.
"But we are not going to accept ULFA's demand for an independent homeland," he said.
ULFA is a rebel group fighting for an independent Assamese homeland in Assam since 1979. The group last year threatened the BJP not to invite party leaders from outside the state to campaign.
The BJP had then said it would not be cowed down by such threats.
During the last assembly elections, a BJP candidate was shot dead by ULFA rebels in eastern Assam's Dibrugarh district.
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