GUWAHATI: Two-time former Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was admitted to a private hospital in Guwahati due to blood pressure-related issues.
According to hospital sources, Mahanta (68), a stalwart of the regional political party Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), was admitted in the intensive care unit on Friday night. His condition was stated to be stable.
Mahanta is the state’s second former CM to be hospitalised in recent times. His successor and three-time former CM Tarun Gogoi (85) of the Congress has been undergoing treatment at another hospital after testing positive for Covid-19 on August 25.
Mahanta is the founder president of the All Assam Students’ Union which spearheaded the bloody anti-immigrants’ agitation of early 1980s. The agitation ended with the signing of the historic Assam Accord in 1985 which was followed by the birth of the AGP and the state elections. Riding the anti-immigrants’ sentiments, the AGP had swept the polls that year and Mahanta, then 33, became the CM, the youngest in India at that time.
The AGP lost the next elections but Mahanta returned as the CM for the second time when the regional party wrested power from the Congress in 1996.