Mahanta gets clean chit
But won’t find sailing too smooth this time

After three months of self-imposed hibernation, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has once again returned to public life. Armed with a clean chit by Assam Assembly Speaker Prithvi Majhi from bigamy charges, the former chief minister is now busy in campaigning for his party candidates in the Panchayat polls.

But will the former Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) chief  be able to revive the old equation he once had with the State’s electorate? Will he be able to bring back the glory his party did bask in some time ago? Will Mr. Mahanta be able to pose any serious challenge to Tarun Gogoi Government in the State?

It is too early to predict about the ‘Mahanta impact’ in Assam politics. While the Congress may think that it would be quite difficult for Mahanta to be the same force to reckon with as the charges of bigamy and wife-beating had already done enough damage, Mahanta loyalists are optimistic that being the only mass leader in the State, their disgraced leader would slowly but surely reach the pinnacles of State politics. They are confident that sooner or later, the people of Assam will realise that Mahanta fell the victim to a deep-rooted political conspiracy.

While only time will tell who is right or wrong, one thing is sure that this time Mahanta’s journey to the top will not be as smooth as was in 1985, when a student leader had found himself in the chair of the Chief Minister overnight.

The first hurdle that Mahanta will have to cross this time is to re-establish himself as the undisputed leader of the AGP. Over the years, once undisputed leader of the AGP, Mahanta has made more foes than friends within the party. Mr. Mahanta might have succeeded in throwing Brighu Phukan and Atul Bora out of the party, but at the same time he lost his firm grip over the AGP to some extent.

Mr. Mahanta’s loose grip over the party was evident when a section of his party colleagues refused to stand behind him when the bigamy charge surfaced. They even forced Mr. Mahanta to resign from both the posts, he was holding at that time, a fact which Mahanta himself admitted in his resignation letter.

In fact, a good number of AGP leaders and workers hold Mahanta responsible for the party’s bad fortune in recent years. According to them, Mahanta’s performance as the chief minister of the State was poor that the AGP had to pay a big price during two Lok Sabha and one Assembly elections. In the two general elections, the AGP led by Mr. Mahanta failed to secure single seat from the State, notwithstanding the fact that the AGP was ruling the State then.

A desperate Mahanta in a last ditched effort to revive the party’s fortune joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), leaving the company of both the communist parties, which were major partners in Mahanta-led coalition government in the State, only to taste defeat once again.

Mr. Mahanta’s detractors accused that despite the writing was clear on the wall, Mr. Mahanta, as the leader of the party, never attempted to arrest the declining popularity of the party. Moreover, they alleged that the decision to join hands with the BJP was taken at the behest of his wife Joyshree Mahanta, who more than the AGP’s revival in the fortune, was interested to secure a berth for herself in Vajpayee’s cabinet.

According to Mahanta-baiters, the new AGP president Brindaban Goswami needs some time to bring back the party on the rails. Mr. Goswami has a difficult task on his hands as since its inception the AGP was controlled by Mr. Mahanta and over the years both became synonymous to each other. Now Mr. Goswami would definitely need sufficient time to assert a Mahanta-like authority over the party.

The duel allegation of bigamy and wife-beating has considerably sullied the image of Mr. Mahanta. More than the charges of bigamy, it was allegation of wife-beating, levelled by none other than his wife herself, has put Mr. Mahanta in a fix.  Though the couple is presently trying to put up a brave front, many believe that the marriage exists only on paper.

This is not the first time that Joyshree Mahanta put her husband in trouble. Earlier, on occasions she with her over-ambitious forays into politics made situation difficult for Mahanta. The AGP workers set the party office on fire in Mahanta’s hometown, when she decided to contest Assembly by-polls from the seat vacated by her husband. Subsequently she made a hasty retreat then, but contested the 1998 general elections from Naogaon constituency in place of a person who won the seat three times on AGP ticket. The electorate did not accept Joyshree Mahanta as the AGP candidate and she came third behind the Congress and the BJP candidates. Later, she managed a Rajya Sabha berth when veteran AGP leader Parag Chaliha died.

This is time for Mahanta to feel the pulse of the AGP supporters and decide his political moves carefully.
     
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