Nagaon, Feb. 19: Still smarting from his defeat in the AGP presidential election last month, former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta today pulled out of the Lok Sabha contest even ?if his party decided to nominate him?.
Mahanta dismissed speculation that he would contest the poll from Nagaon, his home district. ?I am not interested in contesting, not even if my party decides to nominate me,? he told newsmen at his residence here.
Mahanta?s statement came as a rude shock to a section of his sympathisers who have been projecting their leader as the party candidate for the coming elections.
In a single stroke, Mahanta also buried the possibility of his joining the BJP after he lost the party presidential elections to archrival Brindaban Goswami in Tezpur last month. Mahanta?s much-trumpeted comeback attempt had ended in a whimper after a night of high drama at the annual conclave.
Mahanta, however, refused to say anything on poll alliances with other parties as ?this would be decided at the party meeting in Guwahati tomorrow?.
The BJP today made it clear that this time the party will not consider any tie-up in Assam. Senior BJP leaders V. Satish, Arun Sathe and state unit chief Indramoni Bora today took part at a workers? meet here.
Just before the session, Bora said the BJP would field its own candidates in all the 14 constituencies. ?Neither the AGP nor the Janata Dal (U) will be considered for any pre-poll alliance,? Satish said.
The possibility of Mahanta joining the BJP gained ground after his defeat in Tezpur when he reacted ambiguously to a question on whether he might consider joining another party. ?I will not say anything now,? he had replied.
Mahanta?s confidantes were also said to be putting pressure on him to take the drastic step. Party sources said after being snubbed by the party he had led for 16 years on the trot, Mahanta might turn to his close friends in the BJP.
Despite the bitter experiences in the 2001 Assembly polls, the former chief minister had been a vocal advocate of a tie-up with the BJP to ?avoid a split in the non-Congress votes?.
Goswami is, however, opposed to the idea, blaming the tie-up for the drubbing the AGP-BJP got at the hands of the Congress in the May 2001 Assembly elections.
Tomorrow?s meeting in Guwahati is expected to decide the candidates for the Lok Sabha elections though Goswami was said to be groping for nominees who would be able to deliver.