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AASU: unification okay, but minus Mahanta

Sushanta Talukdar

Guwahati: The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) on Thursday opposed any unification move by the regional parties involving the former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.

AASU leaders told journalists that they were in favour of unification but Mr. Mahanta should not be part of it.

The AASU stand comes ahead of a meeting of regional parties, convened on May 5 by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), on unification.

AASU adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharyya, president Shankar Prasad Rai and general secretary Tapan Kumar Gogoi said the student body, at its two-day central executive committee meeting, resolved that the regional forces should be united to overthrow the Congress from power but Mr. Mahanta should not be part of it.

They alleged that Mr. Mahanta “betrayed the people of Assam by not implementing the Assam Accord despite being in power for two terms and had opposed constitutional safeguards for the indigenous people of Assam that was promised in the accord of which Mr. Mahanta himself was a signatory as the then President of the AASU.”

The student leaders also accused Mr. Mahanta of indulging in “secret killing” of innocent people during his tenure.

An 11-member committee was constituted by the AGP to discuss the proposed unification move and efforts to bring back breakaway leaders of the regional parties back into the party’s fold.

The committee, headed by AGP working president Phanibhusan Choudhury, decided to hold parleys with AGP (Progressive) headed by Mr. Mahanta, Trinamool Gana Parishad headed by former AGP minister Atul Bora and Purabanchliya Loka Parishad at the May 5 meeting.

Gogoi’s charge

Earlier, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi alleged that Mr. Mahanta had sought the help of the Congress central leadership to defeat the AGP in the 2006 Assembly polls and met the then AICC in-charge Digvijay Singh in this connection.

Refuting Mr. Gogoi’s charge, Mr. Mahanta alleged that the Chief Minister’s “baseless and concocted statement” was aimed at sabotaging the unification move. Mr. Gogoi and the Congress indulged in a vilification campaign as the ruling party was afraid that if the regional parties came together, the Congress had no future in the State, he said.

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