Prafulla Mahanta's rocking love life angers AGP

Former Assam CM is mired in a controversy over an alleged extra-marital affair that could force his party to sack him. In Hindi

Former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is mired in a controversy over an alleged extra-marital affair that could force the party he founded two decades ago to sack him.

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"We shall not allow personal indiscretions of individuals to ruin the reputation of the party," declared Brindaban Goswami, president of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Assam's main opposition political party.

Mahanta was forced to resign as AGP's president in the later half of 2001 after being accused of illegally marrying his mistress Shangamitra Bharali. Mahanta denies the bigamy charges.

For the better part of the last three years, Mahanta was keeping a low profile, away from politics.

But Mahanta's romance with Bharali came to the fore on two occasions recently - both exposed by his wife Jayashree Goswami Mahanta, a former Rajya Sabha MP.

Local newspapers are flooded with spicy reports of Jayashree allegedly injuring and breaking a bone of Bharali after she found Mahanta and his paramour together in their official bungalow in Guwahati.