Student leader-turned-politician Pramod Boro took over as chief executive member of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in Assam on Tuesday, three days after the announcement of the election results to the council that administers four districts in the state.
The 45-year-old leader of the Liberal Party of the United People’s Party (UPPL), which ran the Bodo Student Union (ABSU) until a few months ago, was sworn in and booked by Assam’s Chief Secretary Jishnu Barua Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and other dignitaries in Kokrajhar.
“Our government is not here for power, but to solve all the problems related to the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR). Let’s forget the past and look towards a peaceful and developed BTR where everyone has equal rights, ”Boro said in his inaugural address after taking office.
It has been a strong rise to power for Boro, who left ABSU and joined UPPL in February this year. Shortly after, he was appointed party president. He led the party to secure victory in 12 of the 40 total seats and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (10) and the Gana Surakha Party (1) to take power in BTC.
On Tuesday, along with Boro, four other executive members of the council, one from UPPL, two from BJP and one from GSP, were sworn in.
The rise of the UPPL and the BJP has come at the expense of the Bodoland People’s Party (BPF) and its chairman Hagrama Mohilary, who was in power at BTC for 17 years since its inception in 2003.
The BPF secured 17 seats in the BTC polls, but failed to garner a majority due to deteriorating relations with the BJP, although the two parties are partners in state government.
Mohilary, a rebel turned politician, had come to power in BTC after the second Bodo Agreement, signed by the Bodo Liberation Tigers (which Mohilary spearheaded) with the Center and the state government in 2003.
The agreement had paved the way for the creation of BTC, after the first one signed in 1993 with the aim of ending the move for a separate state of Bodoland failed.
And now Boro came to power after the third Bodo Accord in January this year, which he had signed as ABSU chairman along with leaders of four factions of the Bodoland National Democratic Front and the United Peoples’ Organization of Bodo (UBPO). .
Unlike Mohilary, Boro had not associated with any rebel teams. But his deputy Govinda Chandra Basumatary, the vice president of the UPPL, has a violent past. The former head of NDFB (Progressive) was also a signatory to the third Bodo Agreement.
With the in-state assembly election scheduled for March-April next year, the BJP aims to further consolidate and increase its control in the areas managed by BTC.
In his speech, CM Sonowal congratulated the BJP workers on the victory at BTC and indicated that the new alliance with UPPL and GSP will continue at the polls as well. The Minister of Education and Finance, Himanta Biswa Saram, announced the creation of 40 new universities, 40 stadiums and a medical school in the area soon.
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