Guwahati, March 7Asom Gana Parishad president Atul Bora on Sunday indicated the party feels that its most senior leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta doesn’t have the probability to win this Assembly election, in so many words.
The AGP has for this election decided not to field a candidate in Barhampur constituency in Nagaon district of central Assam, Mahanta’s bastion, and let ally BJP field Jitu Goswami to contest from the constituency.
“We have conducted a meticulous study on the winning probability of the various candidates in various constituencies, and after considering who would have more chances of winning from where, have we come to this decision,” Bora, addressing a joint conference along with AGP’s ally ahead the Assembly elections BJP and United People’s Party-Liberal (UPPL), said.
“This is not done out of any disrespect to him (Mahanta) but to increase the party’s chances of winning more seats,” said Bora during the joint meet at BJP headquarters in Guwahati on Sunday.
Founder president of Asom Gana Prafulla Kumar Mahanta since 1985, when he led the party to victory and became the youngest Chief Minister of Assam, and in six more consecutive terms, had always represented and won from Barhampur including the one time in 2006, when he broke away from AGP and formed AGP-Progressive.
The AGP-Progressive, which had merged with AGP again in 2008, is now being revived after the party decided not to field him as their candidate, sources close to Mahanta said.
When asked if Mahanta has been consulted before the party decided not to contest in his constituency, Bora denied commenting.
Differences between the party leaders and Mahanta, however, seeded from 2018 when the BJP pushed to pass CAA – Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 then — in the parliament and the AGP an ally to the ruling party after opposing initially, had finally supported the bill. Mahanta, stayed against the bill that was after initial rejection in the Rajya Sabha was later passed in December 2019, six months after the BJP-led NDA formed government for the second term.
Mahanta, considered one of the living tallest leader of Assam after the demise of Tarun Gogoi, is also battling several diseases that had taken him to the ICU bed at least twice in the recent times.
“We have also taken in consideration, his recent health condition while deciding on the constituency,” Bora had said.
Assam BJP president, Ranjit Dass who was also present in the meeting said, “This is what we do in an alliance. We (BJP) have taken Barhampur because we think our candidate has more chance there and gave them (AGP) Chabua (in Upper Assam’s Dirbrugarh district).”
