Prafulla Kumar Mahanta

Prafulla Kumar Mahanta (born 1952) was the leader of the Assam Movement, a former Chief Minister of Assam (two terms) and is the President of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a major political party in the Indian state of Assam. He became the chief minister in the state when the AGP came to power in 1985.

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, a student organization that spearheaded the Assam Movement between 1979 and 1985. In August 2005, his membership in the AGP was terminated. He floated a new political party, Asom Gana Parishad (Progressive), on September 15, 2005.

Despite allegations about secret killings he organized against families of ULFA members, as documented in the report by the Saikia Commission to the Assam Assembly, he was missed from political leadership in the state. He was re-inducted into the AGP after the AGP (Progressive) was dissolved during the Presidency of Chandra Mohon Patowary. Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has been taken back as an integral part of the party.

In a 2010 interview on NDTV in Walk the Talk with Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, The Indian Express, Prafulla 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."

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.

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

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