AGP makes an LS comeback

A Big zero each in two successive Lok Sabha elections — 1998 and 1999 — that had seen the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) remain confined...

A Big zero each in two successive Lok Sabha elections — 1998 and 1999 — that had seen the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) remain confined to a maximum vote share of less than 17 per cent, followed by a massive whitewash in the 2001 state assembly elections should have been the end of the regional party.

But the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections have witnessed the re-emergence of the AGP virtually from the ashes. ‘‘We had no star campaigners to match the likes of Vajpayee or Sonia Gandhi. Our sole capital was the people of Assam who have once again shown a ray of hope to the AGP,’’ said AGP chief Brindaban Goswami.

The AGP has won two seats, Lakhimpur and Dibrugarh, with the latter being a constituency where the Congress had never lost any election ever. The party’s vote share has gone up to 26.69 per cent, with general secretary Chandra Mohan Patowari claiming that it should be 33.50 taking into account the fact that it had contested in only 12 of the 14 seats in the state.

Story continues below this ad

He also said the AGP’s prospects would have been ruined had it decided not to ally with the BJP despite a lot of pressure. ‘‘The BJP wanted us to join its alliance. We were always sceptical because our past experience with the BJP was very bitter,’’ Patowary said.

The AGP-BJP alliance failed miserably in the 2001 Assembly elections, with the state BJP unit refusing to cooperate wholeheartedly with the regional party.

The party that had remained in the third position in most of the seats in 1998 and 1999, has come second in four constituencies. The AGP’s all-time star campaigner, former CM Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, too was out of the campaign, after he suffered several setbacks beginning with the 2001 Assembly defeat.