Assam
INNOCENTS GROW UP
| Tamil Nadu: Veteran Vs Virago |
| West Bengal: Counter Revolution |
| Kerala: First Among Unequals |
Two decades ago, he was considered infallible as leader of the anti-foreigner uprising in Assam. Not any longer. As chief minister-both during his euphoric first term in 1985 and the present one which began in 1996-he has erred on many fronts. Yet, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, 49, is the Asom Gana Parishad's (AGP's) best bet. Not because he has taken the AGP from strength to strength but because he is the regional party's undisputed leader, having sidelined all potential rivals.
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UNDERDOG: Gogoi (right) is quite confident of upstaging Mahanta (above) |
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The son of a schoolteacher, Mahanta has transformed himself from a successful student leader to a politician with tremendous staying power. His government was dismissed in November 1990 as ULFA rebels wreaked havoc in the state, killing, kidnapping and serving extortion notices on tea planters. Then the AGP lost the 1991 polls. When the party romped home in May 1996, Mahanta was a changed man, demonstrating clearly that his government would take on the ULFA.
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CHANGING
EQUATIONS
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| 1996 Assembly elections | |||
| Total Seats: 126 | Seats won | %Votes | |
| AGP | 59 | 29.70 | |
| Congress | 34 | 30.56 | |
| BJP | 4 | 10.41 | |
| 1999 Parliamentary elections | |||
| Total Seats: 14 |
Seats won | Assembly Segment Leads | % Votes |
| AGP | 0 | 7 | 15.23 |
| Congress | 10 | 64 | 38.42 |
| BJP | 2 | 34 | 29.84 |
Mahanta survived an assassination bid by the ULFA but not the stigma of the Rs 200-crore veterinary scam. He also sent his highly ambitious wife, Jayashree Goswami Mahanta, a zoology teacher, to the Rajya Sabha. Now, by tying up with the BJP, he could have ensured her a Central ministerial berth.
On his part, Assam Congress President Tarun Gogoi is used to political families, having grown under the patronage of the Nehru-Gandhi clan. Ever since this young lawyer from the eastern tea-growing district of Jorhat was hand-picked by the Assam Congress stalwart Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed in 1971 to contest the Lok Sabha polls, there has been no looking back. He has been elected an MP six times.
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Rajen Gohain: THE TIES THAT UNBIND |
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Rajen Gohain, Lok Sabha member from Nagaon and the BJP's Assam unit chief, is the AGP's somewhat unwilling ally in the coming election. Despite reservations, he was forced to go along with the central leadership's decision and accept 44 seats, and a secondary role in the alliance. He has a revolt on his hands though. Senior party members like Hiranya Bhattacharya have walked out over the tie-up with the "corrupt Mahanta regime". Gohain's heart is with them. Will his head dictate otherwise? |
Yet, Gogoi, 65, is not overtly ambitious. The
party's chief ministerial candidate doesn't like to talk about it, "My
job now is
to ensure my party's victory and we are confident of winning."
His colleagues are pinning hopes on his non-controversial image.
The only controversy he has been dragged into is the accusation by Mahanta
himself, of a nexus with the ULFA. A Union minister
in the early 1990s, Gogoi is used to pressure. "I manage 20 minutes
of exercises daily to beat the stress," he says. Can he beat Mahanta
too?
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