Sources in the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) said the BJP had offered Rs 15 crore for support in the house. The AGP, which has five MPs in the Lok Sabha, was one of the regional parties that were assiduously wooed by the BJP for support. The BJP had claimed that it would not take recourse to `money power' to win political support.
The monetary offer was extended to Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta by an emissary of senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, who was closely involved in the BJP's efforts to cobble a majority. The sources said the emissary was a senior functionary in the Raj Bhavan in Guwahati.
"We told the emissary that the offer should come in writing and from Mr Vajpayee, only after which we would discuss it in our party forum. After this response, there was no further communication from the BJP", a top AGP leader told Business Standard.
Senior BJP leader J P Mathur, however, dismissed the AGP's charge as "false and baseless", and said: "Our party had announced at the very beginning that we would not take any step that is illegal and amounts to unfair practice".
BJP insiders admitted that there was disappointment when the AGP did not join its fold. This was in view of the fact that the BJP's paternal organisation, the RSS, was involved with the All Assam Students Union (AASU) during the six-year agitation.