Asom Gana Parishad | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | AGP |
| Leader | Prafulla Kumar Mahanta |
| President | Atul Bora |
| Secretary | Ramendra Narayan Kalita |
| Founder | Prafulla Kumar Mahanta Bhrigu Kumar Phukan Biraj Kumar Sarma |
| Founded | 14 October 1985 (40 years ago) (1985-10-14) |
| Headquarters | AGP Complex, Gopinath Bordoloi Road,Ambari,Guwahati - 781001 |
| Student wing | Asom Chatra Parishad |
| Youth wing | Asom Yuva Parishad |
| Women's wing | Asom Mahila Parishad |
| Peasant's wing | Asom Krishak Parishad |
| Ideology | Assamese nationalism[1][2] Right-wing populism[citation needed] |
| Political position | Right-wing[citation needed] |
| ECI Status | State Party[3] |
| Alliance | NEDA (2016–2019, 2019–present) NDA (2016–2019, 2019–present) |
| Seats in Rajya Sabha | 1 / 245 |
| Seats in Lok Sabha | 1 / 543 |
| Seats in Assam Legislative Assembly | 9 / 126 |
| Election symbol | |
 Elephant | |
| Website | |
| https://agpofficial.in | |
Asom Gana Parishad (translation:Assam People's Council,abbr.AGP) is apolitical party in the state ofAssam,India. The AGP was formed following the historicAssam Accord of 1985[4] and formally launched at theGolaghat Convention held from 13 to 14 October 1985 inGolaghat,[5] which also allowedPrafulla Kumar Mahanta, the youngest chief minister of the state, to be elected. The AGP has formed government twice since then, once in 1985 and again in 1996. The popularity of AGP surged in the late 1980s but declined in the 2000s.[6] After a 20-year gap, AGP, in alliance withNDA, won aLok Sabha seat in 2024.[7]
The party split in 2005, with former Chief Minister Prafulla Mahanta forming theAsom Gana Parishad (Progressive), but regrouped on 14 October 2008 in Golaghat.[8]
It won 14 seats out of 126 in the 2016 Legislative Assembly Elections, coming to power after a long gap. It was a partner in a coalition with theBodoland People's Front andBharatiya Janata Party.[9]
Currently it is a part ofNorth-East Regional Political Front consisting of political parties of the northeast that has supported theNational Democratic Alliance (India). As of 2021, the party is likely to form an alliance with BJP in coming assembly elections as well.[10]
AGP was a result of a six-year-long civil unrest in Assam, known as TheAssam Agitation, led byAll Assam Students' Union,[11] Due to illegal infiltration of foreigners from Bangladesh into the stateAssam citizens had raised concerns about illegal infiltration of migrants from neighboringBangladesh (East Pakistan until 1972), as they feared that it is altering the demographic, social and economic make-up of the state.
In 1979,AASU led what started as a nonviolent campaign to highlight illegal immigration into the state, but later descended into violence. The AASU, joined by theAGSP demanded detection and disenfranchisement of all illegal migrants in the state, and deportation of all immigrants entering the country from 1951 on under the laws of the land. One of the most serious outcomes of the ethnic violence that ensued came to be known as theNellie massacre when anti-immigrant groups attacked and killed at least 2,000 Muslim, Bengali immigrants.[12] The agitation lasted from 1979 to 1985, and caused tension and hostility during the assembly Election in 1983.
AASU then constituted theAll Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) which consisted of representatives of various organizations including theAsom Sahitya Sabha, two regional political parties – Asom Jatiyabadi Dal and Purbanchaliya Loka Parishad, the Sadau Asom Karmachari Parishad, Asom Jatiyabadi Yuva-Chatra Parishad, Asom Yuvak Samaj, All Assam Central and semi-Central Employees’ Association etc.
Several rounds of discussions with successive governments inNew Delhi. The accord was signed between the government, represented by prime ministerRajiv Gandhi, and representatives of the AASU.
The State Assembly was then dissolved and the Congress government headed byHiteswar Saikia, who came to power in February 1983, was dismissed.
TheGolaghat National Convention, held inGolaghat on 13–14 October 1985 determined that a regional political party similar to Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) should be formed and the Asom Gana Parishad was launched inGolaghat on 14 October 1985.
The central executive committee of theAll Assam Students’ Union (AASU) had been dissolved at a convention inNorth Lakhimpur in September, andPrafulla Kumar Mahanta, the president of the AASU, was elected the president of the presidium of the new political party.Asom Jatiyabadi Dal and thePurbanchaliya Loka Parishad also merged with AGP. Members from other organizations joined the party.
The AGP contested the State Assembly elections held in December 1985 and swept the polls by winning 67 of the 126 seatsin addition to capturing seven of the 14 Lok Sabha (Parliament) seats thus forming the Government of Assam. The party won the election and formed a government again in 1996.
Party leaderPrafulla Kumar Mahanta served as theChief Minister of Assam for two terms, first from 1985 to 1990 and again from 1996 to 2001. Asom Gana Parishad was a part of theNational Front government from December 1989 to November 1990.
AGPMember of ParliamentDinesh Goswami was the Union Minister of Law and Justice in theV. P. Singh Ministry. The party also took part in theUnited Front governments headed byH. D. Deve Gowda andInder Kumar Gujral. Party leadersBirendra Prasad Baishya andMuhi Ram Saikia took office as Union Minister of Steel and Mines and the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development respectively in the United Front governments.
The party began losing ground in the 2010s; from 67 seats in the assembly in 1985 and 59 in 1996, the AGP's strength in the assembly came down to 14 seats in 2016.[13] Once a formidable force, it has been sidelined by theBodoland People's Front and theAIUDF ofBadruddin Ajmal. Currently, the party has only 9M.L.A in theLegislative Assembly of Assam.AGP was criticised by AASU for supporting CAA in 2019.[13]
The AGP in March 1991 underwent a split when party general secretary and formerAssam Home MinisterBhrigu Kumar Phukan, former Union Law Minister and MPDinesh Goswami, former state Education MinisterBrindaban Goswami,Assam Legislative Assembly speakerPulakesh Barua and others formed theNatun Asom Gana Parishad (natun meansnew inAssamese). This fraction came back to the party fold in 1992.
In 2000, former AssamPWD minister and senior party leaderAtul Bora (Senior) moved away along withPulakesh Barua and formedTrinamool Gana Parishad.
After the second AGP Government's reign underPrafulla Kumar Mahanta came to an end andCongress regained power, numerous allegations were raised against him related to the corruption during his tenure, government's involvement in secret killings, and Mahanta's overall inactive leadership. These led to his demotion from being President of the party and later he was expelled from the party on 3 July 2005 after being accused of anti-party activities. Mahanta then formed his own party,Asom Gana Parishad (Progressive).
In 2008, a process started to reconcile the differences among all the breakaway fractions and to bring back everybody under the mother party umbrella to strengthen the regional party movement inAssam. Finally, on 14 October 2008, all breakaway groups reconciled in one umbrella at the historic town Golaghat.Prafulla Mahanta merged his AGP(P) with it.Atul Bora andPulakesh Barua merged their TGP with the AGP and farmer leader and former legislator of Patacharkuchi,Pabindra Deka too merged thePurbanchaliya Loka Parishad (PLP) with it.
In 2011, firebrand youth leaderSarbananda Sonowal resigned from all executive posts within AGP and joined theBharatiya Janata Party, due to dissatisfaction with and amongst the senior leadership of the party who were trying to forge an alliance with a party that was against the scrapping of the controversial IMDT Act. "The AGP was born out of the illegal foreigners' issue after the six-year-longAssam agitation; 855 people laid down their lives in the agitation. However, the party has failed to honor the sacrifice of the martyrs by deviating from its principles. But I have no grievances against the dedicated grassroots-level workers. Since the AGP has failed to tackle the illegal migrants' problem, I've joined the BJP keeping in mind the interest of the people ofAssam and the fact that I'll be able to highlight the problems and issues of the state at the national level," Sonowal, the former AGP general secretary, said.
On 8 February 2011, Sonowal joinedBharatiya Janata Party in the presence of the then BJP National PresidentNitin Gadkari and senior leaders likeVarun Gandhi,Vijay Goel,Bijoya Chakravarty and stateBJP presidentRanjit Dutta. He was immediately appointed a member of theBJP National Executive and then later on State Spokesperson of the stateBJP unit, prior to his current assignment to head the state as the new president.
Again on 3 July 2013, senior party leaderAtul Bora once again left the party and joinedBJP.
| Election | Seats | Votes | Vote Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 19 / 126 | New | 17.93% |
| 1996 | 59 / 126 |  40 | 29.70% |
| 2001 | 20 / 126 |  39 | 20.02% |
| 2006 | 24 / 126 | 4 | 20.39% |
| 2011 | 10 / 126 | 14 | 16.29% |
| 2016 | 14 / 126 | 4 | 8.1% |
| 2021 | 9 / 126 | 5 | 7.91% |
| Election | Seats | Votes | Vote Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | 8 / 543 | As Independent Candidates | |
| 1989 | Election not held | ||
| 1991 | 1 / 543 | 1,489,898 | 0.54 |
| 1996 | 5 / 543 | 2,560,506 | 0.76 |
| 1998 | 0 / 543 | 1,064,977 | 0.29 |
| 1999 | 0 / 543 | 1,182,061 | 0.32 |
| 2004 | 2 / 543 | 2,069,600 | 0.53 |
| 2009 | 1 / 543 | 1,773,103 | 0.43 |
| 2014 | 0 / 543 | 577,730 | 0.10 |
| 2019 | 0 / 543 | 1,480,697 | 0.24 |
| 2024 | 1 / 543 | 1,298,707 | 0.20 |
In May 2016, after the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) ledNational Democratic Alliance which included parties like Asom Gana Parishad andBodoland People's Front formed its first government inAssam, and formed a new alliance called theNorth-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) withHimanta Biswa Sarma as its convener. The Chief Ministers of the north eastern states ofSikkim andNagaland also belong to this alliance. Thus, the Asom Gana Parishad joined theBJP led NEDA.[14]
In November 2016,Atul Bora was elected for President of Asom Gana Parishad second time amending party's constitution ‘one man one post’ as he is also minister of Agriculture, Horticulture and Food Processing, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary inSarbananda Sonowal Ministry.[15]
In January 2019, they broke an alliance withBharatiya Janata Party on the issue ofCitizenship Amendment Bill 2019 but in March 2019 the party returned toNorth-East Democratic Alliance for the Lok Sabha election. As per the agreement, AGP contested on 3 seats,Bodoland People's Front at one andBharatiya Janata Party on ten seats.[16][17]
List of presidents
| No.[a] | Name | Portrait | Term | Constituency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prafulla Kumar Mahanta | %2c_Dr._Mahesh_Sharma%2c_in_New_Delhi_on_July_20%2c_2017_(cropped).jpg) | Nowgong | |
| 3. | Thaneswar Boro | Rangiya | ||
| 2. | Brindaban Goswami | | September, 2001 – 21 September 2008 | Tezpur |
| 4. | Chandra Mohan Patowary |  | 21 September 2008 – 14 May 2011 | Dharmapur |
| (1) | Prafulla Kumar Mahanta | | 14 May 2011-15 July 2014 | Barhampur |
| 5. | Atul Bora | .jpg) | 15 July- Incumbent | Bokakhat |
List of Working Presidents
| No.[b] | Name | Portrait |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bhrigu Phukan | |
| 3. | Keshab Mahanta |
List of Chief Ministers
| No.[c] | Name | Portrait | Ministries | Constituency | Term of office[18] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From | To | Days in office | |||||
| 1 | Prafulla Kumar Mahanta | | First Mahanta ministry | Nowgong | 24 December 1985 | 28 November 1990 | 4 years, 339 days |
| Second Mahanta ministry | Barhampur | 15 May 1996 | 17 May 2001 | 5 years, 2 days | |||
List of Leaders of Opposition
| No.[d] | Name | Portrait & Term |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prafulla Kumar Mahanta | 4 September 2010 - 14 July 2014 |
| 2. | Brindaban Goswami | |
| 3 | Chandra Mohan Patowary | |
| Rajya Sabha members AGP | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Portrait | State | Appointment date | Retirement date |
| Birendra Prasad Baishya | | Assam | ||
| Kumar Deepak Das | %2c_in_New_Delhi._The_Union_Minister_for_Tribal_Affairs_and_Panchayati_Raj%2c_Shri_V._Kishore_Chandra_Deo.jpg) | |||
| Parag Chaliha |  | |||
| Joyasree Goswami Mahanta |  | |||
| Bhadreswar Buragohain | | |||
| David Ledger | | |||
| Bijoya Chakravarty |  | |||
| Arun Kumar Sarmah | | |||
| Nagen Saikia |  | |||
| Lok Sabha members from AGP | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Portrait | Term | Constituency | State |
| Parag Chaliha | | 1985-1989 | Jorhat | Assam |
| Dinesh Goswami | | 1985-1989 | Guwahati | |
| Gakul Saikia | | 1985-1989 | Lakhimpur | |
| Muhi Ram Saikia | | 1984-1989, 1991-1996, 1996-1998 | Nowgong | |
| Prabin Chandra Sarma | | 1996-1998 | Guwahati | |
| Keshab Mahanta | .JPG) | 1996-1998 | Kaliabor | |
| Arun Kumar Sarmah | | Lakhimpur | ||
| Sarbananda Sonowal |  | 2004-2009 | Dibrugarh | |
| Birendra Prasad Baishya | | 1996-1998 | Mangaldoi | |
| Joseph Toppo | | 2009-2014 | Tezpur | |
| Ataur Rahman | | 1985-1989 | Barpeta | |
| Bhadreswar Tanti | | 1985-1989 | Kaliabor | |
| Saifuddin Ahmed | | 1985-1989 | Mangaldoi | |
| Phani Bhusan Choudhury |  | 2024-incumbent | Barpeta | |
| List of AGP Ministers inSonowal ministry(5-December-2016- | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nos. | Portrait | Ministers | CM |
| Cabinet Minister | | ||
| 1. | | Atul Bora | |
| 2. | | Keshab Mahanta | |
| 3. | | Phani Bhusan Choudhury | |
| List of AGP Ministers inSarma ministry(5-December-2016- | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nos. | Portrait | Ministers | CM |
| Cabinet Minister | .jpg) | ||
| 1. | | Atul Bora | |
| 2. | | Keshab Mahanta | |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)