Mahanta quits as AGP chief

By Barun Das Gupta

GUWAHATI, SEPT. 4. The former Chief Minister of Assam and founder of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Mr. Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, resigned from the party presidentship and leadership of the party's legislative wing today, two days before the general body meeting of the party.

The resignation is seen as a sequel to the controversy over his alleged ``second marriage'' with an employee of the State Assembly secretariat in Mumbai last march.

In a letter addressed to the acting president of the party, Mr. Biraj Kumar Sharma, to whom he had ``temporarily'' handed over charge on August 14 after the scandal came to light, Mr. Mahanta said he was resigning keeping the interest of the party in mind and also due to ``personal difficulties''.Mr. Mahanta's resignation letter would be ``discussed'' at the party executive committee meeting tomorrow, the AGP general secretary and former Agriculture Minister, Mr. Chandra Mohan Patowary, said. The executive is expected to accept it.

Mr. Mahanta also resigned from the leadership of the Legislative Party, though not from the Assembly. AGP sources told this correspondent that the party would not ask him to resign from the Assembly.

The same sources also said that the election of Mr. Brindaban Goswami, Education Minister in the first AGP Government, as the new party president at the general body meeting on September 6, was now more or less a foregone conclusion.Even before the marriage controversy came into the open, there were murmurs of dissent against Mr. Mahanta's ``style of functioning''.

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