AGP elects Atul Bora as its legislature party leader

The AGP on Tuesday unanimously elected its President Atul Bora as the leader of its Legislature Party and Working President Keshab Mahanta as the Deputy leader in the first meeting of the newly elected legislators of the next assembly.

In a meeting, presided by senior party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Birendra Prasad Baishya, the names of the two leaders were proposed by the outgoing government's Minister Phanibhushan Choudhury and they were unanimously elected, according to a party spokesman.

Bora, Mahanta and Choudhury were the three ministers from Asom Gana Parishad in the outgoing government led by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

The party also elected senior party leader Ramendra Narayan Kalita as the Chief whip and Ponakan Baruah as the Secretary of the AGP Legislature Party.

An ally of the BJP, AGP won nine seats, four down from the 13 it had won in 2016, in the just concluded polls.

The party will have two new faces in the assembly- Prithiraj Rava from Tezpur and Ponakan Barua from Chabua while Bora from Bokakhat, Mahanta from Kaliabor, Kalita from Gauhati (West), Choudhury from Bongaigaon, Renupama Rajkhowa from Teok, Prodip Hazarika from Amguri and Bhabendra Bharali from Dergaon.

Choudhury, the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies in the outgoing government, has retained his Bongaigaon constituency for a record eighth consecutive term.

Bora was the agriculture minister while Mahanta held the Water Resources portfolio in the Sonowal cabinet.

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