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Syed Zarir Hussain in Guwahati
Former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and his Asom Gana Parishad are in the eye of a political storm with allegations of rape, sex scandal and bigamy against top leaders of the party.
Local dailies and weeklies are full of spicy stories about Mahanta, 49, allegedly tying the nuptial knot with a married woman from Guwahati.
The AGP, Assam's main opposition party, denied the reports at a press conference, saying political rivals planted the story to tarnish his image. AGP leaders showed journalists a written statement from Mahanta denying the allegations.
The local media, in corroborating the 'secret wedding' held at a temple in Bombay some time in March, has extensively quoted the woman with whom Mahanta allegedly got married.
The lady, an Assam government official, has reportedly confessed in interviews to the local press that both had been "smitten by each other" long before they decided to marry in the presence of select friends, including a former Assam minister, who is also a confidant of Mahanta.
Mahanta, father of three children, has been married for 14 years to Jayashree Goswami Mahanta, a former member of the Rajya Sabha.
Even as the AGP was yet to get over the sensational reports surrounding Mahanta's alleged bigamy, the party was jolted by allegations against another top leader and former minister, Jatin Mali, who has been accused of impregnating his maid servant.
The 21-year-old domestic help at Mali's residence told reporters that Mali "coerced [me] into a physical relationship" on three successive nights during electioneering for the assembly polls in May.
She alleged that a local doctor, who is a close aide of Mali, later forced her to go for an abortion.
Mali and his wife later told journalists at a news conference that the charges were "fabricated and politically motivated".
Earlier this month, a minister in the previous AGP government, 50-year-old Rajendra Mushahary, was arrested by police on charges of raping a tribal girl sometime in March 2000.
In December last year, the girl gave birth to a baby boy with Mushahary being accused of fathering the child.
Mushahary has all along denied having raped the girl, saying he was a victim of political conspiracy.
Following mounting pressure from women's groups, a court ordered both the minor girl and Mushahary to undergo DNA profiling to prove their points.
Last month, DNA testing reports from a laboratory in Hyderabad confirmed the girl's claims that the former minister was the father of her son.
The AGP promptly suspended Mushahary from the party, a move seen by many as an attempt to salvage its sagging image.
Although senior AGP politicians have been putting up a brave front by dismissing the alleged scandals as smear campaigns launched by the ruling Congress, not all are taking the reports lightly.
"Right or wrong, the string of scandals involving senior leaders of the AGP has affected the morale of the party's workers and definitely tarnished the image of the party," one senior AGP politician told the Indo-Asian News Service.
The scandalous charges, although unconfirmed, have come at a time when the AGP has received a drubbing at the hands of the Congress in the May 10 assembly election.
The AGP think tank, now under pressure, will have to do some serious damage control before the scandals spin out of hand.
Indo-Asian News Service
EARLIER REPORT: Former AGP minister arrested on rape charge
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