Peace parleys, PC's trump card for polls

GUWAHATI: With barely three days left for Assam to go to the second phase of election, Union home minister P Chidambaram on Friday played the mastercard on the poll turf the peace process with various militant outfits.
"I am confident that the peace parleys with most of the Assam-based militant outfits, including Ulfa, will be successful this year,"
Chidambaram told newspersons at the Congress headquarters here.
"The dialogue with the pro-talks Ulfa and NDFB (P) leaders is progressing, while the peace agreement has been finalised with the United People's Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) and the final draft is ready. The draft for talks with the DHD(Jewel) and DHD(Nunisa) will be soon finalized," he said.
On the fate of the peace talks with Ulfa without the presence of the outfit military boss, Paresh Barua, the home minister said, "I will like to see all Ulfa leaders coming forward for talks." He, however, denied that reports that Baruah was in India or neighbouring Bangladesh. "He is neither in India nor Bangladesh. We have some reports about his whereabouts but we cannot confirm the place."
Rubbishing claims of a section of security agencies about the presence of the Maoists in Assam, Chidambaram said, "There were two or three isolated reports about Maoists in Assam. But from our assessment, I can say that there's no presence of Maoists in the northeastern state."
He appealed to the voters to return the Congress to power again in Assam, he said, "Only a Congress government can solve the problem of insurgency in the state." Giving the credit for the GDP growth and infrastructure development in Assam to the Tarun Gogoi government, the home minister appealed to the people to vote for the Congress. He said that the Assam has been on the development path during the last 10 years of Congress rule. "The growth should not be interrupted," said Chidambaram.
He also pledged completion of the Bogibeel bridge in Dibrugarh and Murkong Selek broad gauge conversion project in lower Assam's Rangiya by March, 2014.