20 yrs on, AGP expels Mahanta

The expulsion, which will have a far-reaching impact on the state’s political scenario, was announced after the AGP steering committee expressed its dissatisfaction at Mahanta’s reply to a show-cause notice issued last month.

Mahanta, currently in New Delhi, was not available for comment but some of his close aides said he ‘‘would not remain idle’’. According to party insiders, his supporters may now split the AGP and join hands with NCP and CPI. Mahanta had last Tuesday hit the headlines by having a breakfast meeting with Purno Sangma of the NCP and senior CPI leader Pramode Gogoi.

The AGP, meanwhile, also issued show-cause notices to four of its prominent MLAs—former industry minister Gunin Hazarika, Utpal Dutta, Sahidual Alam Choudhury and Bubul Das.

AGP spokesman Jagadish Bhuyan said the steering committee, which met earlier today, concluded that ‘‘severe disciplinary action was the only way out’’ in Mahanta’s case.

Mahanta, one of the AGP’s founders in 1985 along with current president Brindaban Goswami, became CM for the first time after the party swept the elections within two months of its birth.

He became CM again in 1996 and remained party president for most of the time from 1985 to 2001 till he quit following allegations of bigamy, which was never proved. He then lost to Goswami in an organisational poll in January 2004.

Mahanta’s latest ‘crime’ was that he went public against Goswami by complaining that the leadership was weak and would not be able to tackle the Congress in next elections. He also told a TV channel that those who had split the AGP in 1991, allegedly with the tacit support of the Congress, were ruling the roost—Goswami was instrumental in that split along with Bhrigu Kumar Phukan, Dinesh Goswami and Bijoya Chakravarty.

Last week, Mahanta further antagonised party leaders by propping up a new group, Sanmilita Yuva Samaj, floated by his supporters.