Mahanta gives up AGP top-post demand

GUWAHATI:Three days after he shot off a letter to the incumbent Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) asking for return of his job as the president of the regional political party that he had given up ‘temporarily for six month on health ground’, former Assam chief minister, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has softened his stand in the interest of ‘strengthening the regional political party.
He said that he was not hankering for any top post in the party and was willing to serve the party as a general member as he was committed to strengtheningthe regional political force.
“The need of the moment demands that we all in the party should join hands to keep the AGP united and so that people’s confi dence in the party is restored. I want to clarify that I don’t want to assume the leadership of the party in future,” he said.
“New generation leadership should strive strengthen the party taking everybody along. I am ready to make extreme sacrifice for the greater interests of the party and willing to serve the party as a general member in its new journey towards rejuvenation,” the former chief minister said.
The beleaguered Mahanta who had led AGP to demoralising defeats in all the elections held in Assam since 2001,had handed of the charge of party president to the executive president Atul Bora in July, 2014 temporarily for six months on health ground after he had found himself cornered in the general council meeting of the party.
Recently, the party’s general council meeting extended the term of Bora .
However, he wrote a letter to Bora asking to return the post of party president.