AGP query for poll panel

Calcutta Telegraph: Guwahati: Sunday, 08 February 2015.

The leadership tussle in the AGP between its "elected" president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and "appointed" president Atul Bora today reached the Election Commission.

This was apparent from an RTI application despatched to the poll panel, which has to be updated about a party's organisational changes.

The application is seeking the Election Commission's intervention following the appointment of Bora as the full-fledged president by the general house (see chart), which, a section within the party asserts, violates the party constitution. According to them, the president has to be elected.

The Telegraph had in its February 3 edition reported that such a move would be effected once the group seeking the poll panel's intervention received information from the Election Commission.

The commission-certified copies of correspondence by Mahanta and Bora, accessed by this correspondent, reveals the latter has assumed full-fledged charge as president and that both leaders' interpretation of Clause 29 (2) contradicts each other.

"We have moved the Election Commission after we got the certified copies of the correspondence made by Mahanta and Bora. Clause 29 (2) has been cited by both but how can there be two interpretation of the same clause. Something is amiss.Therefore, we want the poll panel's intervention to let us know how it can accept two different interpretations of a clause. And since it also violates another clause Schedule 6 (Clause 28-2a) of the constitution which mentions that the president is always elected, we want to know what step the EC will take to rectify the situation," a party insider said. The application also wants to know which of the two list of office-bearers - the one on the Election Commission website or the one sent by Bora - is correct.

Mahanta was elected president of the AGP on April 27, 2012 for a three-year term. He got 212 votes while his challenger Padma Hazarika got 175 votes. Bora had also won the working president's post comfortably.

Party insiders claimed the move was triggered after a bid by Mahanta supporters to reinstate him after six months came a cropper during the January 5 general house meeting, which ended in chaos when the issue was raised.

The RTI application highlights the contradiction while repeatedly harping on Clause 29 (2) of the party's constitution which states that the working president can only officiate as the in-charge president but not as the full-fledged president who has to be elected through the party's electoral system.

Mahanta had told The Telegraph he had handed over charge to Bora for only six months while Bora, too, had also said he was now the party president and his appointment was made by the general council, the "supreme body" of the party.

The copy of the general house resolution, sent to the Election Commission by Bora, states, "It is resolved that the meeting after due deliberation over the request made by president of the party Prafulla Kumar Mahanta for reliving him from the charge of office of the president on the ground of ill health. The House unanimously decided under Clause 29(2) of the constitution of the party to take charge of the office of the president by Atul Bora, working president of the party to continue as president till the next general conference of the party."

Party insiders said the developments would seriously hinder the party's efforts to rebuild itself. It had earlier suffered two splits in the past over the leadership issue.

"This development does not augur well," an insider said.