Trouble in Asom Gana Parishad

Guwahati, July 30 (UNI) Turmoil gripped Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the main opposition party in Asom, after a section of the party leadership were out to unseat President Brindabon Goswami and restore former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in the top post.

Heated debates were seen in the general body meeting of the AGP today after the grassroot leaders targetted the party leadership for drubbing in the last assembly elections and the post poll chaos.

President Brindabon Goswami is maintaining a brave front.

However, an effort by former minister Chandra Mohan Patowary and Phani Bhusan Chouhdury was on to ensure Mr Goswami's exit to be replaced by Mr Thaneshwar Boro as an interim president.

''The idea is to place Mr Thanehswar Boro as the president of the party for the time being and then get Mr Mahanta at a proper time to recapture the presidentship,'' said a senior general secretary of the party on condition of anonymity.

Mr Prafulla Kumar Mahanta walked out of the party months before election, to form a splinter group named AGP (P). That party won just one seat. Since then attempts were on by the Mahanta faction to come back into the mother party, which has been resisted by the majority sections of the AGP.

''Now Mr. Mahanta is facing weekly trials before the K N Saikia commission in the secret killing episode. He will be a big liability but anything can happen in the AGP,'' said another vice president.

Party leaders remained off the record as the general body meeting progressed. ''The party will never listen. Once again it will act in emotion and once again it will prove its failure,'' said a disgruntled vice president. The anti-Brindabon camp is talking of a grand reunion of all the splinters groups of the AGP but the mistrust and suspicion is running high and not a single office bearer is ready to speak on record.

With panchayat polls round the corner, the AGP is in complete shambles and besides some ornamental meetings, the party as a whole is in complete chaos with leadership, spending more time in fighting one another than taking on the ruling party, according to political circles.

The ground level workers were equally frustrated and they blame the present leadership for not being able to give a proper direction.

But it is happy time for the Congress as they find no opposition and the BJP is trying to fill up the space vacated by the AGP, according to political circles.

UNI