GUWAHATI: When the second phase of the Lok Sabha poll is barely 36 hours away, the AGP received a jolt on Tuesday when a former Minister of the party joined the Congress with hundreds of party leaders and cadres.
AGP’s Morigaon district president Bubul Das joined the Congress with hundreds of party workers on Tuesday. Ever since the three AGP Ministers in Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s Cabinet reverted to their respective ministerial berths and the party to the BJP-led alliance at Dispur, there has been an undercurrent of displeasure in the rank and file within the party.
Bubul Das was elected to the State Assembly from Jagiroad Legislative Assembly Constituency twice – in 1991 and 1996 – and after winning the 1996 election he became the Fishery Minister. He has a good grip in Jagiroad LAC.
When AGP president Atul Bora, working president Keshab Mahanta and senior leader Phani Bhushan Choudhury joined the Sonowal’s Cabinet again after stitching a fresh BJP-AGP alliance, Das openly criticized the decision taken by the party high command. He was on record saying: “The three top AGP leaders, who said that ministerial berths could never be greater than the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), have diluted the party’s stand on the Bill by reverting to the BJP-led coalition and the State Cabinet.”
The ideological differences in the regional party have come to such a pretty pass now that former Chief Minister and founder AGP leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has remained aloof in the party for his stiff opposition to the CAB. The latest development may have its repercussions in the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat going to the polls on April 18.
Political pundits rack their brains if the mass joining of AGP workers in Morigaon district to the Congress is an indication of the post-Lok Sabha poll reorganization in the regional party that may even face yet another split.
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