GUWAHATI, AUG 26: With Assembly elections just around the corner, several small political parties in Assam - most of which are break-away factions of the ruling Asom Gana Parishad - have started a process that might see them merged into an entity they plan to project as an alternative to the ruling party.Taking the initiative is Pabindra Deka, who was a minister between 1985 and 1990 when the AGP had first come to power. Deka has recently quit the Congress to return to regional politics.Those who have responded to Deka's call include former Assam Home minister Bhrigu Kumar Phukan, who three years ago had fallen out with Chief Minister and AGP supremo Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, and had constituted the Asom Jatiya Sanmilani.Phukan was among a handful of former AGP leaders who attended an informal meeting convened by Deka here yesterday evening, which called for a larger unity among like-minded parties and groups that subscribed to the view that the AGP has failed to act as an effective regional force.Others who attended the meeting included Jatindra Kumar Borgohain, a former newspaper editor, who is currently the president of the Asom Gana Sangram Parishad (AGSP), a political front floated by some members of the Asom Jatiyabadi Yuva-Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), former AGP legislator Paniram Rabha, and Purbanchaliya Loka Parishad (PLP) president Ananda Borbora.In fact, Pabindra Deka, the convener of yesterday's meeting, originally belonged to the PLP, most of whose senior members had joined the Asom Gana Parishad when it was formed in 1984. But over the years, most PLP leaders have quit the AGP following differences with Mahanta. Two important AGP members who originally came from the PLP and who recently quit the ruling regional party include Atul Bora and Pulakesh Barua. While Bora quit the AGP after Chief Minister Mahanta reshuffled his ministry in May 1997 and shifted Bora from PWD to Forests, Barua is a former Speaker whom Mahanta did not accommodate in the Cabinet after the AGP returned to power in 1996.In fact, Pulakesh Barua had joined hands with Bhrigu Kumar Phukan in 1991 to form the Natun Asom Gana Parishad (NAGP), only to return to the AGP just a year later. Since then, both Phukan and Barua have not been enjoying Mahanta's confidence.Earlier this year, Barua and Atul Bora had announced the formation of a new group called the Trinamool Gana Parishad (TGP) with several other original PLP leaders joining in the new formation. Prominent among them is Krishna Gopal Bhattacharyya, a Gauhati University professor, who had stood by Mahanta since 1985 till last year.But whether the unity move launched by Pabindra Deka is going to click or not is too early to be said, given the fact that Atul Bora and his group refrained from attending yesterday's meeting.
