Give us Bodoland or lose people's support in '19: Bodo bodies to BJP

New Delhi: A key Bodo students' organisation and a rebel group that has joined the peace process have issued a virtual warning to the BJP that it would lose the support of the Bodo community if its governments at the Centre and in Assam fail to take concrete steps for creation of Bodoland before the 2019 elections.

However, both the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF), an alliance partner in the BJP-led coalition in Assam; and the state government sought to downplay the threat.

After the 2016 assembly polls, with 60 lawmakers in the 126-member house in Assam, the BJP formed the government along with the Asom Gana Parishad that won 14 seats and the BPF-- the lone Bodo political party-- that bagged 12 seats.

The BPF said it will continue to support the BJP and stressed that a separate Bodoland was not an issue for it.

However, the influential All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Progressive), the first militant group to give up arms and join the peace process, have vowed to defeat the saffron party if it did not take concrete steps for a separate state for the Bodos before the 2019 polls.

The ABSU and the NDFB (P) accused the BJP of giving "false assurances" and alleged that it was not even ready to talk on the issue of Bodoland.

However, ABSU president Pramod Bodo said the BJP had time till April 2019 to solve the Bodoland issue if it wants to get the support of the Bodo community.

"They (BJP) can expect the support of Bodos but only if they fulfil our demand of a separate Bodoland... They must take some concrete steps in this regard before April (2019)," Bodo said. "They should stop mocking the genuine aspirations of the Bodos," he added.

The demand for a separate state of Bodoland started in 1967.