Guwahati, July 2: In a development that could change the contours of Assam politics, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and friend-turned-foe Bhrigu Kumar Phukan today buried the hatchet to jointly challenge AGP president Brindaban Goswami?s alleged dictatorial ways.
The two leaders, who led the anti-foreigner movement and formed the first AGP government before parting ways, met at room number 14 of Guwahati Circuit House this morning, ostensibly to discuss the power equation within the party.
Former AGP executive committee member Pranab Goswami, known to be a Mahanta loyalist, had booked the room in his name and was the first to reach the venue.
Phukan joined him soon after. Mahanta arrived around 11 am and immediately went into a huddle with his estranged colleague ? behind closed doors ? for the first time in over a decade.
Former Speaker Ganesh Kutum and Goswami joined the duo around 12.30 pm. The quartet remained closeted in the room for another hour.
Mahanta was unavailable for comment, while Phukan was reticent. The former home minister, who rejoined the AGP at Goswami?s invitation before the Lok Sabha election, admitted to discussing party affairs with Mahanta but refused to give details.
A Mahanta aide said both leaders resented Goswami?s ?autocratic? ways and had found a common goal in opposing the AGP chief. ?Resentment has been brewing in the party over Goswami?s style of functioning and the manner in which he has been sidelining senior leaders to promote his cronies.?
On whether the duo discussed specific instances, the aide said they took exception to the omission of several senior leaders from the 12-member steering committee that was constituted on Wednesday.
Phukan was apparently peeved at being ignored in spite of being promised an important position in the AGP prior to his return to the party.
?Even Phukan?s aides who defected to the AGP from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) expected to be given importance within the party. But Phukan himself was sidelined by the Goswami camp after his defeat in the Lok Sabha election,? a source in the AGP said.
He pointed out that the steering committee includes three members from Goswami?s home district, Tezpur.
?The AGP district units of Guwahati, Lakhimpur and Dibrugarh have not been represented.?
Mahanta, Phukan and Kutum are understood to have agreed to jointly work to strengthen the party and the anti-Congress campaign.
After scuttling Mahanta?s bid to reclaim the AGP presidentship during the Tezpur convention on January 2, Goswami urged all those who had deserted the party during his rival?s 14-year stint at the helm to return. Phukan rejoined the party did so on March 27 and was nominated the AGP candidate for the Guwahati Lok Sabha seat. As many as 37 office-bearers of the NCP followed him.
?I was humiliated in spite of being a founder member of the AGP for not accepting the then leader?s style of functioning,? Phukan had told The Telegraph after announcing his return to the party.
He first left the AGP in 1990 along with several other leaders, including Goswami, and floated the Natun Asom Gana Parishad. He merged the breakaway party with the AGP in 1994, but deserted it again in 1997.