Asom Gana Parishad - History

History

AGP was a result of a six-year-long Assam Agitation against illegal infiltration of foreigners from Bangladesh into Assam, led by All Assam Students Union (AASU). For years, people of Assam have been complaining against infiltration of illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh (East Pakistan till 1972), as they feared that it is altering the demographic, social and economic make-up of the state. In 1979, AASU started peaceful democratic movement demanding detection of all illegal migrants in the state, deletion of their names from the country’s electoral rolls and deportation of all of them under the laws of the land. This movement continued for years, and the Assembly Election was held in 1983 in this hostile environment, which was protested by the agitating people. AASU then constituted the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) which consisted of representatives of various organizations including the Asom Sahitya Sabha, two regional political parties – Asom Jatiyabadi Dal and Purbanchaliya Loka Parishad, the Sadau Asom Karmachari Parishad, Asom Jatiyabadi Yuva-Chatra Parishad, Asom Yuvak Samaj, All Assam Central and semi-Central Employees’ Association etc. Several rounds of discussions with successive governments in New Delhi led to the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985 between the AASU and the government, with prime minister Rajiv Gandhi standing witness to it. The movement, known as Assam Agitation has come to be later remembered as one of the longest peaceful movements in the world after the freedom movement of India.

Following this, the State Assembly was dissolved and the Congress government headed by Hiteswar Saikia, which came to power in February 1983, was dismissed.

A national convention of the people of Assam, organised at Golaghat on October 13–14, 1985 decided that a regional political party under the name and style of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) be constituted, and the Asom Gana Parishad was finally launched at Golaghat on October 14, 1985. By that time, the previous central executive committee of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) was dissolved at a convention in Lakhimpur in September, and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, the president of the AASU during the period of the peaceful democratic movement, was elected the president of the presidium of the new political party. Asom Jatiyabadi Dal and the Purbanchaliya Loka Parishad also merged with AGP. Members from other organisations also joined the party.

The AGP contested the State Assembly elections held in December 1985 and swept the polls by winning 67 of the 126 seats apart from capturing seven of the 14 Lok Sabha (Parliament) seats, and formed the Government of Assam.