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Kokrajhar (Assam), Dec. 15 (PTI): The fourth Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) was constituted on Tuesday with the swearing in of five members of the BJP-UPPL-GSP combine and UPPL’s Promod Bodo assuming charge as the Chief Executive Member (CEM) of the autonomous body.
The members were administered the oath of office by Assam Chief Secretary Jishnu Barua at the Green Field Ground in Bodofa Nwgar here.
Besides Bodo, the others sworn in included Deputy CEM Gobindo Chandra Basumatry of the United Peoples’ Party Liberal (UPPL), BJP’s Gautam Das and Diganta Barua and Gana Suraksha Party’s (GSP) Ghanashyam Das.
Bodo took oath in Bodo language while the others did it in Assamese.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Irrigation Minister Bhabesh Kalita, Lok Sabha MPs Dilip Saikia, who is also the BJP’s National General Secretary, and Pallab Lochan Das, Rajya Sabha MPs- Bhubaneswar Kalita and U G Brahma- were present in the swearing in ceremony.
The outgoing CEM Hagrama Mohilary of Bodo Peoples’ Front (BPF) was conspicuous by his absence on the occasion.
Bodo, after taking oath, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Chief Minister and Finance Minister for paving the way for peace and development in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) with the signing of a new Bodo Accord in January this year.
He described the Prime Minister as a visionary who had taken the initiative to solve the problems of the region so that peace can prevail.
Many governments have come and gone but no such definite initiative like bringing all factions of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) were taken before, he said.
He assured all communities living in the BTR to live without fear and to come forward with their problems, which the new council will try to resolve in the next five years.
Bodo, the former President of the All Bodo Students’ Union who went on to form the UPPL, said that his priority will be to ensure that there is no “unhappy people” in the BTR after the five year rule of the new council.
The UPPL has won 12 seats, BJP nine and GSP one seat in the just concluded 40-member council polls while the Bodoland Peoples’ Front (BPF), which had headed the autonomous body for the last three terms, emerged as the single largest party with 17 seats and Congress secured one seat.
The lone Congress member Sajal Kumar Sinha joined the BJP on Monday and was subsequently expelled from the Congress.
The BJP on Sunday had decided to dump its alliance partner BPF in the state government and join hands with the UPPL and the GSP to form the next council in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), comprising the four districts of Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri.
The BTC elections had assumed significance in view of the state assembly elections likely to be held next year with all the 14 seats from the four districts currently held by the BPF.
The BPF had joined hands with the BJP before the 2016 assembly polls to form the government and three of its MLAs- Pramila Rani Brahma, Chandan Brahma and Rihon Daimary are currently ministers in the Sonowal cabinet.
The elections to the Council, earlier scheduled to be held on April 4 was deferred due to the coronavirus pandemic, were held in two phases on December seven and 10.
The council polls were held after a fresh Bodo Accord was signed in New Delhi on January 27 by the leaders of all four factions of the NDFB- then All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) Chief Pramod Bodo, Mohilary and the Chief Minister.