Assam: Denied ticket, Prafulla Mahanta might join Congress-led ‘Mahajot’, wife Jayashree hints

Founding AGP president and former two-time Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is all set to once again sever ties with the party he had founded and could in likelihood join hands with the Congress.

Mahanta was denied the ticket from Barhampur – the seat he has been representing for seven straight terms since 1985 – with the BJP fielding Jitu Goswami from Mahanta’s home turf.

Although Prafulla Mahanta is yet to make a formal announcement on what his future course of action will be, his wife Jayashree Goswami Mahanta – a former Rajya Sabha MP – has spoken on behalf of her husband, hinting that a bonhomie with the Congress-led Mahajot, the rainbow coalition of eight opposition parties that also comprises the AIUDF and three Left parties, is very much on the cards.

“He might join them,” she said on being asked whether Mahanta will join hands with the Congress-led ‘Mahajot’ and contest the upcoming elections.

“He has been taking an anti-CAA stand and will continue to do so. By denying Prafulla Mahanta the ticket from Barhampur, the AGP-BJP coalition has not only hurt his sentiments but has also murdered the very essence of regionalism in Assam,” Jayashree Goswami Mahanta said in Guwahati after their return from New Delhi where Mahanta had been recuperating after undergoing treatment at the national capital.

“He has been working for Barhampur and its people since 1985. People want him to contest again. And not only people from his constituency, people from other constituencies also want him to contest. We are weighing all options,” she added.

Earlier on Friday, APCC president Ripun Bora had claimed that Mahanta had already opened channels of communication with the Congress after being denied the alliance’s ticket.