BPF pushed us towards BJP by ignoring the BKWAC Bill: UBPO

KOKRAJHAR: In a fresh revelation, the United Bodo People's Organization (UBPO) on Wednesday said that the Bodoland People's Front (BPF) pushed them towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by deliberately rejecting their long-cherished demand of creation of Boro Kachari Welfare Autonomous Council (BKWAC) for the Boro Kachari people living outside BTC. Over 700 leaders and workers of UBPO from 22 districts joined the BJP on October 7 in a function held at Sankardeva Kalakshetra in Guwahati after the BPF ignored the BKWAC bill in the last assembly session.

Talking to mediapersons at Bodoland Guest House, Kokrajhar on Wednesday, the president of the UBPO, Mihiniswar Basumatary said that they had been working together with the BPF to support and raise voice in favour of creation of BKWAC. According to him, BPF president Hagrama Mohilary supported their issues and extended help to make their dream come true but a cabinet minister from the BPF did not bring the bill for BKWAC in the assembly session on August 31, although Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and State Finance Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma had assured them to pass the BKWAC bill prior to the assembly session. He said that the draft for BKWAC bill was not made by the cabinet minister from the BPF for reasons best known to him, which also implied the lapses among the BPF top brass. Basumatary said that the Boro Kachari people got agitated seeing the apathy of BPF towards creation of the new council and thus finding no option, they joined the BJP to make BKWAC a reality.

Basumatary said that had the BKWAC bill been brought in the last assembly session, the UBPO workers would not have joined the BJP, rather the BPF could have had a chance to form the district committees of BPF beyond BTC ahead of the next assembly election and become a major game player in 2021. He also said that the Bodos could have become game changer at least in 26 constituencies but the BPF lost this opportunity by repeatedly keeping the BKWAC bill aside in every assembly session. He accused minister Chandan Brahma of blocking the bill for BKWAC time and again and alleged that Brahma was the main person behind the division among the NDFB factions and for Hagrama Mohilary's possible political uncertainty and collapse.

On the issue of inclusion of Bodo villages of Sonitpur and Biswanath districts, Basumatary said that over 534 Bodos of those districts sacrificed their lives for the cause of the Bodoland movement and definitely they deserved to be included in BTR. He said that they did not want to play with the sentiments of the Boro people in Sonitpur and Biswanath and they welcomed the Bodo villages of those districts which had not been included in BTR to be included in BKWAC. He also said that a commission with five members had already been formed to decide the inclusion of villages to BTR.