Map 1.1 Location of Assam
4.3 Factionalism after the Assembly election of 1991
The Indian National Congress party came to power in Assam with a thumping majority in the Assembly election of 1991. The party won 66 seats with a share of 29.35 % votes polled. The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) for the first time could enlist win in 10 seats with a share of 6.55% vote polled, specially in the constituencies dominated by the Bengali linguistic minorities in the Barak valley and Dhubri. The Indian National Congress was the ultimate winner after the breakup of the AGP vote bank in Brahmaputra valley. The maladministration during 1985-1990 and internal squabbles in the regional party have already weakened the AGP vote bank.
The split of the party put the death nail on the coffin.
After the split in the AGP, command of party leadership remained literally with Thaneswar Bodo but real power was exercised by Mahanta. Mahanta was elected as the leader of the AGP legislature party after the Assembly election of 1991. Some senior leaders specially Atul Bora was not pleased at this development. Bora on 28th June 1991 said that he would have preferred Thaneswar Bodo as the leader of the AGP legislature party and it would have fostered unity among the opposition parties on the floor of the Assembly. Bora even disassociated himself with the party’s declaration of Mahanta being ‘unanimously’ elected. Newspaper reported that the AGP’s legislature party meeting was marred with some unpleasant scenes and hinted on more factional rivalry in the party110. Atul Bora declared,
“We lost a number of seats in the Assembly election of 1991 because of the fact that party’s poll banners had photos of the former Chief Minister printed on them”.
In his own constituency of Dispur he had asked his supporters to remove Mahanta’s picture from all poll posters and other materials111. Bora had protested policy of glorifying a single leader in the AGP. He said AGP is not an individual based party but one which believes in collective leadership.
110 The Assam Tribune, 29th June, 1991. Biraj Kumar Sarma and Utpal Dutta, two of the Mahnta loyalists were present in the meeting. The acting president Thaneswar Bodo asked them to leave the meeting because they were neither elected MLAs nor central observers, hence no business in the AGP legislature party meeting. But other Mahanta loyalists present in the meeting had intervened and asked Bodo to allow them to attend the meeting. This angered Atul Bora who stormed out of the meeting in a huff.
111 ibid.
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Thaneswar Bodo remained AGP president till 7th January, 1992. In the 2nd general conference of the party held in Guwahati from 7th to 9th January, 1992, veteran academician and former Lok Sabha member Paragdhar Chaliha became the president. He tried to lead the party in a befitting manner and made efforts to unite both the breakaway factions. Everybody realized that it won’t be possible to win elections in future unless both the parties reunite. The vernacular media turned it into a public opinion. Poragdhar Chaliha, Thaneswar Bodo, Atul Bora and all the senior leaders agreed on the fact. But no substantial move for the unification was taken till 1994. In the middle of 1994, AGP formed a small committee for this purpose comprised of Paragdhar Chaliha, Atul Bora, Digen Bora and Bharat Chandra Narah.
4.3.1 Unification of the breakaway factions: The AGP and the NAGP
Atul Bora took special interest in the unification of the AGP and the NAGP. At his instance, formal talk started between a three member committee of the AGP with three NAGP envoys namely, Brindaban Goswami, Dinabandhu Choudhury and Ramendra Narayan Kalita on 19th September, 1994. The meeting was held at Hatishila in Chandrapur near Guwahati. It was agreed upon that a new post of working president would be created for the NAGP and the post of president will remain with the AGP. But Bhrigu Kumar Phukan who was not present in the meeting declined the proposal and demanded the post of president for the NAGP, which was turned down by the AGP representatives. The reunification talk started again when AASU general secretary Samujjal Bhattacharyya and others mediated with a greater aim of defeating the Congress in the forthcoming Assembly election.
On request from the AASU, Hiren Gohain agreed to be the mediator. After a series of talks, it was decided in an informal way that in the next general conference Mahanta would be the president and Phukan the working president of the AGP.
But Mahanta faction led by Digen Bora was very strong and this group was unwilling to welcome the NAGP. But the pressure of the AASU and public opinion was in favour of unification.
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“Mahanta adopted the delay tactic and bye time to consolidate his position in the district committees. Once that objective is achieved, Mahanta would express his inability saying the grassroot workers did not want unification. Phukan often felt perturbed and humiliated in such tactful ploy of Mahanta.”112
Paragdhar Chaliha as the president of the AGP played a constructive role and was in favour of unity. Even some NAGP leaders were also desperate to merge with the AGP again; e.g., Pulakesh Barua, the president of the NAGP joined the AGP in a hurry which further weakened the NAGP. Finally, both the factions negotiated at the Khanapara Veterinary Guest house and decided that Paragdhar Chaliha shall continue as the president and Bhrigu Kumar Phukan would be the working president for the time being. Hitesh Deka, Ramendra Narayan Kalita from NAGP and Hiten Goswami, Sahidul Alom Choudhury and Dilip Saikia Sonowal from the AGP participated in this meeting113.
Atul Bora later exclaimed that the agreement of unification was not reached on equal terms and NAGP would have to play subsidiary role in future. Media had highlighted the reunion of two old friends, Phukan and Mahanta. It was peculiar that the unification of the two political parties was never given importance in the AGP circle114. Efforts continued to give the unification a final shape in the third general conference at Lakhimpur on 27-29 October, 1995. Both the parties, the AGP and the NAGP were present in the conference in full strength. As per the understanding, Mahanta became the president of the party and Bhrigu Kumar Phukan was supposed to have been given the post of working president. But a strong lobby led by Atul Bora, Digen Bora and Biren Baishya didn’t let it happen.
Paragdhar Chaliha was presiding over the conference. The post of working president was not even created in the general council. None of the NAGP leaders were accommodated in the central executive committee. This amounted to public
112 Hiren Gohain, Personal interview, Guwahati, May 9, 2016.
113 Mrinal Talukdar, Assam after Independence, (Guwahati: Nanda Talukdar Foundation, 2017), 328.
114 Atul Bora, Abirata Sangram, (Guwahati: Maa Prakashok Gosthi, 2007), 105, 106.
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humiliation of the the NAGP leaders along with Bhrigu Kumar Phukan and Brindaban Goswami. The main aspect of the AGP and NAGP unification shattered, because the AGP leaders always considered counterparts in the NAGP as obstacles and impediments for fulfillment of their personal ambitions. Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, after becoming the president paid a deaf ear to these affairs of his supporters. In fact, despite the unification, leaders of the AGP and the NAGP had never come closer and internal strife continued in the AGP.
Despite the fact, the party riding on the media hype and popular support participated in the Assembly election of 1996. Bhrigu Kumar Phukan took special initiative to form a grand coalition of AGP, CPI, CPI (M) and ASDC. The support of Jamiyat Ulema-e-Hind and the UPPA led by Abdul Muhib Mazumdar helped the coalition to bag the minority votes in Assam. The role of Sahidul Alom Choudhury was very much crucial in obtaining the minority the minority support to the AGP.
People of Assam too wanted to get rid of the maladministration of the Hireswar Saikia government. During this period, counter insurgency operations of the scurrility forces and the carrot and stick policy of the government towards the autonomy movement of the Bodos and the secessionist movement of the ULFA made the common people suffer. Ethnic clashes between the Bodos and the Adibasis increased, both religious and the linguistic minorities faced oppression.
Obviously, people wanted to get rid of this Hobbesian state of affairs and voted the AGP led coalition into power. In the Assembly election held on April 27, 1996 the AGP led front got 68 seats. Voting percentage was 78.92%, an increase of almost 5%
(74.67% in 1991), a record that reflected the peoples support for the AGP. Two of the NAGP sitting MLAs, viz., Badan Barua of Hajo and Hiteswar Deka of Kamalpur were denied a ticket because Nurul Hussain and Moidul Islam Bora of the Mahanta faction were strong contenders to the respective seats. Being the party president, Mahanta was the sole contender for the Chief Minister’s post. The new AGP ministry took the oath on 15th May, 1996.
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