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North East : Assam - Opposition AGP expels its founder President, may split

	July 11, 2005

The Opposition Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) which spearheaded the movement against foreigners in the nineties and emerged as a major alternative to the Congress, headed for a split last week when its founder president and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was expelled from the party by the new president Brindaban Goswami.

Commenting on the development, Brindaban Goswami said the party was not going to review the decision to expel the party’s founder president and two-time chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta for alleged anti-party activities.

‘I just want to reiterate that of the 104 central executive members, only three wanted the disciplinary action to be light. This shows that all of them wanted action against him and those who are indulging in anti-party activities,’ Goswami said after returning from a tour of Upper Assam.

Justifying the decision to expel Mahanta, Goswami pointed out that the former chief minister’s activities were not only aimed at weakening the party, but were detrimental to the cause of regionalism.

However, Mahanta, who returned to the state last Wednesday from a short vacation in Mussorie, has been laying stress on keeping the party intact to take on the ruling Congress in the Assembly elections slated for next year.

Keeping his cards close to his chest, he has not given any indication about his next move even as his camp started hectic politicking to win over more legislators to its side in a bid to ‘capture’ the party. Flanked by four sitting AGP legislators, Mahanta told the media on July 7 that only time would reveal how many legislators were with him. ‘Is there any need to parade them now ?’ he asked with a smile.

He, however, gave an indication of a legal battle for capturing the AGP, claiming that many constitutional and legal matters would come up in the days to come. In reply to a query on whether he would go to court, Mahanta said, ‘I will not say anything now.’

‘As the then president of the party, it was I who had signed the recognition certificate of the AGP members in the Assembly. They (AGP legislators) became MLAs on my signature,’ he added.

Mahanta loyalists said though they would try to stake claim to the party nomenclature and symbol, they gave enough indication that they have also started ‘parallel work’ on floating a new party.

Mahanta said he was still in the AGP, adding, ‘It is to be seen who expels whom.’ But at the same time, he appealed to the AGP leadership to roll back its ‘suicidal decision’, thus heightening the suspense.



Options before Mahanta

With the latest development, Mahanta now has the option of floating his own political party. Many have already pledged in-camera support to Mahanta if such an eventuality arises. But Mahanta might be having the last laugh as this has given him an opportunity to break away from the AGP without being stamped a ‘traitor’.

The drastic action taken by the AGP leadership against Mahanta, according to observers, is set to alter political equations in the state ahead of next year’s Assembly elections.

Mahanta is perhaps the AGP’s only leader whose name rings a bell in national politics. The immediate fallout of the action against Mahanta, political observers point out, would be a split in the AGP, the third it would suffer since its inception in 1985. Four of the sitting party legislators and known Mahanta loyalists, besides two other leaders, have already been served with showcause notices.

In a way, Mahanta has been paid back in his own coin. It was he who had shown the door to party leaders, like present AGP president Brindaban Goswami, in 1991. ‘Politics has an uncanny way of exacting revenge,’ observed an AGP party worker.

It is also ‘revenge’ that is uppermost in the minds of many in the Mahanta faction, when they said they would teach the rival camp headed by Goswami a lesson in the Assembly elections due early next year. “When one AGP camp takes on another AGP camp, the only party that will stand to gain from it would be the ruling Congress”, said an analyst.

However, it remains to be seen what will be the BJP’s loss or gain from this development. Reports have been doing the rounds about the saffron party making a bid to rope in Mahanta and his flock before the next Assembly elections. Yet, a secular Mahanta is said to be reluctant to throw in his lot with the BJP.

‘Political equations have drastically changed now. It will only help the Congress. We have seen in the past that any split in the AGP has only benefited the Congress,’ said CPI(M) leader Hemen Das.