GUWAHATI, May 31 � Schism has surfaced again within the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). The party is now divided into two factions � one supporting president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and the other working for his ouster.
Meanwhile, AGP secretary Manoj Kumar Bora today announced his resignation from the regional party due to serious differences of opinion with party president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on the issue of making the party acceptable to the common people following the Lok Sabha results. However, the regional party has described Bora�s move as a conspiracy to lead the AGP towards instability.
Announcing his resignation from the primary membership of the party, Bora told newspersons at a press conference here this noon that the regional party which earlier used to get support of a sizeable section of the State�s people, has now been able to garner the support of only 3.46 per cent of the State�s voters.
Faced with such a situation, the youth leaders of the party held a meeting on May 20 at Sivasagar, urged the party�s central leadership to resign from their posts and to hold a convention involving all national organisations, ethnic organisations and intellectuals to chalk out an action plan on the burning issues.
The decisions of the meeting were sent to the party president and the media was not informed of these developments. However, party president Mahanta got furious after receiving the letter that contained the above decisions and behaved rudely with him (Bora) while speaking to him over phone on May 21 and 24. Mahanta even warned him of dire consequences, Bora alleged.
But the official statement of the regional party has alleged that Bora had canvassed against the party candidate during the last Lok Sabha elections and incited the party members to join other parties. Bora has been trying to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and there are complaints of his working for the BJP in a covert manner during the Lok Sabha elections.
Party insiders told this newspaper on condition of anonymity that the party central executive meeting scheduled for June 18 and its general council meeting scheduled for June 19 at its Ambari headquarters, are likely to witness uproarious scenes. The issue of change in the party leadership is likely to feature in both the meetings, said the party sources.
