Guwahati: A day after a former top police officer talked about a strong nexus between political parties of Assam and the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), ex-chief minister and AGP leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta confirmed the claims.
Ghanashyam Murari Srivastava, the former DGP of Tripura and Assam told News18 the Congress had come to power in 2001 with ULFA’s help.
He said, “In 2001, the ULFA was directly involved in Assam’s assembly elections. The insurgent group helped the Congress win the elections in Assam in exchange for a huge amount of money.”
"We intercepted a message of ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, wherein he passed an order to the outfit's comrades to attack the candidates of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). In the same message, he ordered the men to kill the candidates of another political party as well,” said the former top cop.
On Tuesday, Mahanta said, “The information is not wrong. The banned group had attacked our party candidates at that time.”
Mahanta had served as the chief minister of the state for two terms, 1985-1990 and 1996-2001.
He is a former president of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), the organisation that spearheaded the Assam Movement between 1979 and 1985.
Meanwhile, Arabinda Rajkhowa, chairman of ULFA’s pro-talks faction, said, “It is not true that we (ULFA) entered into an agreement with the Congress before the 2001 assembly election. No official negotiation was made with any political party.”
“Since the formation of our outfit, we have revolted against all governments of Assam. We were always involved in armed movements against any election in our region.”
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