Guwahati: Putting to the rest all speculation, two senior leaders of the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) joined the Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP) on Monday at the latter’s national headquarters in New Delhi, thereby delivering a blow to the regional party led by former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta before the Lok Sabha polls.
Former AGP president and former minister in Assam Chandra Mohan Patowary and another senior AGP leader and former minister Hitendra Nath Goswami, joined the BJP in presence of the party’s president Rajnath Singh and state BJP president Sarbananda Sonowal in New Delhi.
A large number of followers of both senior AGP leaders are expected to join the party soonm following in the footsteps of their leaders.
Both Patowary and Goswami said that they were compelled to leave the AGP because of lack of vision on part of the regional party’s leadership to rejuvenate the party by infusing young blood.
The BJP state president Sarbananda Sonowal hailed the development saying that both Patowary and Goswami would be instrumental in strengthening the BJP in Assam given that both leaders had clean public images and a good standing among the people of the state.
At least 20 senior leaders of the AGP’s Jorhat regional committee in Assam had earlier quit the party along with Goswami in order to join the BJP, while a large number of supporters of Patowary from Nalbari district of Assam are set to join the BJP by leaving the AGP soon.
Patowary is likely to be nominated by the BJP to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls from Barpeta constituency in western Assam.
He has also been inducted in the BJP’s national election committee.
It is construed to be a setback for the regional AGP before the polls given the standing of both Patowary and Goswami in the regional party.
Patowary had been associated with the regional party since its formation in 1985, while Goswami had joined the AGP in the early 1990s after giving up a successful career as a lawyer in the Gauhati High Court.
AGP president and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, in reaction to the exodus, stated that those who were committed to regionalism would not join a national political party.