Aasu VP leaves students' body, will join AGP soon

GUWAHATI: In a major embarrassment to the All Assam Students' Union (Aasu), the organization's vice-president, Moni Madhab Mahanta has quit the students' body and is likely to contest the Lok Sabha polls on an AGP ticket from Kaliabor. Moni Madhab is the younger brother of AGP minister Keshab Mahanta, who was a former president of the Aasu.

Ever since Moni Madhab quit Aasu on Thursday, speculations were doing the rounds that he might join AGP. However, AGP spokesperson Manoj Saikia on Friday confirmed the former Aasu leader will join AGP soon.

The development comes at a time when Aasu has opposed AGP's decision to forge an alliance with the BJP. AGP had earlier walked out of the alliance with the BJP over opposing stands on the citizenship bill. But last Wednesday, the two parties came together once again and declared that they would fight the election together.

In a post on social media, Moni Madhab expressed his gratitude to Aasu for giving him a platform for his efforts to safeguard Assam's lanuage and culture. "In the days to come, I have resolved to do good for my motherland and seek cooperation and blessings from my well wishers," he wrote.

While AGP sources said the regional party is happy with Moni Madhab's decision to join them, the Aasu camp appeared downcast following the exit of their vice-president.

Aasu president Dipanka Kumar Nath told TOI that Moni Madhab tendered resignation from Aasu citing "family reasons". But, several leaders of the students' body said that he had already deicded to join AGP even before he resigned from Aasu.

"Indeed, his (Moni Madhab) exit is a jolt for us. After this incident, we have firmly decided to set disciplines for our members so that they can not defect to political parties from a non-political, committed social organization like Aasu. We feel that such incidents of Aasu leaders defecting to political parties hurt Aasu and the organization will suffer. So, at the top level of the organization, it has been decided to chalk out a set of rules so that our members and leaders cannot defect to political parties that are different from us," said Nath.

Even as Aasu's constitutional mandate restricts its leaders and members from consorting with political parties, the students' organization has 'undesirably' produced innumerable politicians, including heavyweights like incumbent chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, BJP's trusted man in northeast, Himanta Biswa Sarma and former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.

However, to find a way out of this quandary, Aasu is now considering imposing a six-month cooling period for its members who quit the organization and want to join a political outfit.

"For anybody, it's a personal decision to join a political party. But we are concerned about Aasu leaders leaving us to join political parties. So that such incidents do not reoccur in future, Aasu is going to frame strict rules to prevent the direct entry of our members into political parties. We will set conditions, earmarking a minimum time frame within which none of our members or leaders will be able to join any political party immediately after leaving the organization," said Nath.