Assam: 500 youths from student body to join AGP on Monday

Around 500 youths from the All Assam Students Union (AASU) are all set to join the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) on Monday. 

Reliable sources have told Indian Today NE that 500 youths will be swelling the ranks of the AGP on Monday, which is being seen as a huge boost for the regional party. The mega joining ceremony is set to be held in Golaghat district on Monday. 

It is also being reported several former AASU leaders may also be part of the lot that joins the AGP. However, there is no confirmation regarding the names as of now. 

This development is being seen as another blow to the AASU which saw two of the student body's former leaders joined the BJP on January 28. Former AASU president Dipanka Nath and former AASU vice-president Prakash Das has joined the BJP amid much criticism from their former compatriots in the AASU. 

However, the joining of another 500 youths to the AGP, which is an alliance partner of the BJP in the NDA coalition, futher raises questions on the political standing among the AASU members even as the Lok Sabha elections are barely a couple of months away. 

Former AASU president Lurinjyoti Gogoi had, in 2021, went ahead and formed the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) which is now a part of the Congress led-INDIA alliance in Assam. However, the frequent migration of former AASU leaders to the BJP and now the scheduled mega joining of around 500 AASU youths to BJP's ally the AGP is raising questions of the internal standing within the student body and its political party.  

Meanwhile, the AGP, which was itself an offshoot from the AASU back in the 1980s, formed its own student win named Asom Chhatra Parishad in 2019, signalling a splinter between both sides.