Prafulla Kumar Mahanta

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Prafulla Kumar Mahanta
The former Chief Minister of Assam, Shri Prafulla Kumar Mahanta calling on the Minister of State for Culture and Tourism (Independent Charge), Dr. Mahesh Sharma, in New Delhi on July 20, 2017 (cropped).jpg
Mahanta in 2017
11th Chief Minister of Assam
In office
15 May 1996 – 17 May 2001
GovernorLokanath Misra
Srinivas Kumar Sinha
Preceded byBhumidhar Barman
Succeeded byTarun Gogoi
In office
24 December 1985 – 28 November 1990
GovernorBhishma Narain Singh
Hari Dev Joshi
Anisetti Raghuvir
Devi Das Thakur
Preceded byHiteswar Saikia
Succeeded byPresident's rule
Leader of the Opposition,Assam Legislative Assembly
In office
4 September 2010 - 14 July 2014
Chief MinisterTarun Gogoi
Preceded byChandra Mohan Patowary
Succeeded byvacant
In office
1991 - 1996
Chief MinisterHiteswar Saikia
Member of Assam Legislative Assembly
In office
1991 - 2021
Preceded byGirindra Kumar Baruah
Succeeded byJitu Goswami
ConstituencyBarhampur
In office
1985 - 1991
Preceded byMukut Sharma
Succeeded byMukut Sarma
ConstituencyNowgong
Personal details
Born (1952-12-23) 23 December 1952 (age 71)
Nagaon
Political partyAsom Gana Parishad
Other political
affiliations
National Democratic Alliance
North-East Democratic Alliance
Spouse(s)
Jayashree Goswami Mahanta
(
m. after 1988)
Children3
Parents
  • Deba Kanta Mahanta (father)
  • Lakshmi Prova Mahanta (mother)

Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is an Indian Politician who was the leader of the Assam Movement, a former Chief Minister of Assam (two terms) and the former President of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a major political party in the Indian state of Assam.[1] He became the chief minister in the state when the AGP came to power in 1985, becoming the youngest Chief Minister of an Indian state.[2]

He served as the chief minister of the state for two terms, 1985–1990 and 1996–2001. He is a former president of the All Assam Students Union, an organization that spearheaded the Assam Movement between 1979–1985. In August 2005, his membership in the AGP was terminated. He floated a new political party, Asom Gana Parishad (Progressive) on 15 September 2005.

Early life and education[edit]

Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was born on the 23 December 1952 to Lakshmi Prova Mahanta and Deba Kanta Mahanta at Village-Uluoni, Ruparayan Satra Kaliabor, Nagaon.[3] He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from Gauhati University.[4]

Political Career[edit]

During his time as a student, he became active in politics, and in 1979 he was named the president of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), an influential organization in the state. That year the AASU embarked on a popular agitation against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh that lasted until 1985. The movement, spearheaded by Mahanta, made him from being the leader of a student organization to becoming an influential politician. He was a major factor in the formation of the AGP in October 1985 and was elected the party’s first president.

Mahanta was first elected to the Assembly in 1985 for Nowgong. Mahanta next was elected to the Assembly in 1991 for Barhampur. He defeated the Indian National Congress candidate, Ramesh Chandra Phukan, by 17333 votes.[5] He continued to represent Barhampur in 1996, 2001 2006, 2011 and 2016.

On 4 September 2010 he was again unanimously elected as the Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly.

On 21 October 2013, representatives from eleven political parties of the North-east region met to form a new political front, the North-East Regional Political Front (NERPF), to protect the interests of the region's people. Mahanta was appointed the front's chief adviser.[6]

On 14 July 2014 he resigned as president of Asom Gana Parishad after its failure to get any seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.[1]

He did not run in the 2021 Assam Legislative Assembly Election after differences with his party. However, the cause might also have been his health and whether or not he could campaign.[7]

Chief Ministership[edit]

AGP candidates secured a notable victory in December 1985, Mahanta who was one of those people, became the Chief Minister, he became the youngest person in the country to hold such a high office. His first administration, however, was beset by allegations of corruption and problems of escalating violence linked to the United Liberation Front of Assam (a militant separatist group in the state). In 1990 the authorities in New Delhi dismissed the AGP government and took direct rule of the state. A split in the party in 1991 and voter dissatisfaction with its performance in its first administration led to a poor performance for the party in the 1991 assembly elections.

Following an AGP resurgence in the 1996 state assembly elections, Mahanta became the chief minister for a second time. That tenure became highly controversial, especially after the revelation of a counterinsurgency strategy that allegedly was under the direction of Mahanta. In June 1997 the ULFA staged an attack on Mahanta, after which the police coerced ULFA cadres who had surrendered to the authorities to kill family members of active insurgents. An official commission that later was to investigate the killings and it concluded in 2007 that Mahanta was directly responsible for the policy. Also during his second administration, Mahanta was alleged to have been involved in a corruption scandal involving fraudulent letters of credit and avoided prosecution only through the intervention of the governor of Assam. Investigation of the matter was reopened in 2010. The 2001 elections were terrible for the AGP as they only won 20 seats. On top of that, it was alleged that Mahanta had had an extramarital affair, he subsequently was ousted as president.

Despite the allegations of secret killings he organized against families of ULFA members, documented in the report by the Saikia Commission to the Assam Assembly, Mahanta was missed from political leadership in the state. He was reinducted into the AGP after the AGP (Progressive) was dissolved during the Presidency of Chandra Mohan Patowary, and regained a prominent position in the party.

In a 2010 interview on NDTV's Walk the Talk with Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of The Indian Express, Mahanta said:

"For the sake of the integrity and security of India, we are ready to take any blame. If the insurgent groups attack our forces, then they (the security forces) must have the right to respond. However, the charge against me on extra judicial killings of the ULFA sympathisers is to malign my image."[8]

In the same interview, he said that unknown agencies of the Congress Party had conspired in massacres during the Assam Movement in the early eighties.

Aside from the current chief minister of the state, Mahanta is regarded as the most powerful and influential politician of Assam.

Personal life[edit]

Mahanta married Jayashree Goswami Mahanta on the 29 April 1988. His wife was a writer and served as a Rajya Sabha MP.[9] Together they had 2 sons and 1 daughter. His youngest son, Shuvam Kashyap, was hurt in a road accident in 2016.[10]

He was admitted to hospital in September 2020. He was also admitted to Guwahati hospital on 16th January 2021 after he complained about chest pain and high blood pressure. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his wife and his son and wished Mahanta a speedy recovery.[11]

See also[edit]

Reference[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Former Assam CM Prafulla Kumar Mahanta resigns as AGP chief". IANS. news.biharprabha.com. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  2. Mahanta takes on Congress heavyweight
  3. "Who's Who". assamassembly.gov.in. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  4. "Prafulla Kumar Mahanta | Biography & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  5. "Barhampur Assembly Constituency Election Result - Legislative Assembly Constituency". resultuniversity.com. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  6. "INDIA 11 northeast parties join hands ahead of Lok Sabha polls, form front", The Times of India, archived from the original on 24 October 2013
  7. "Prafulla Kumar Mahanta: The man who would be king". The Indian Express. 10 March 2021. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  8. Walk the talk with pk mahanta
  9. "2019 Sahitya Akademi awardee Jayashree Goswami Mahanta to distribute prize money among families who lost lives during CAA protests in Assam-India News , Firstpost". Firstpost. 18 December 2019. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  10. "PressReader.com - Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions". www.pressreader.com. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  11. "PM Modi meets family of ailing Assam ex-CM Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, wishes for his speedy recovery". The Economic Times. Retrieved 27 August 2021.

4. http://www.elections.in/assam/assembly-constituencies/nowgong.html

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