It has not been smooth, but it has happened. Three years after forming his own breakaway party, the Asom Gana Parishad (Pragatisheel), Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is once again back with his party in the parent Asom Gana Parishad. In this unification exercise, not only the AGP (P) but also the Trinamool Gana Parishad and the Prabin Deka faction of the Purbanchaliya Loka Parishad merged with the AGP. The unification was agreed upon for the sake of strong regional unity that alone can present a credible opposition to the Congress. The AGP does not wish for a repetition of the humiliation it suffered in the last assembly elections soon after expelling Mr Mahanta from the party for anti-party activities. That wish is reasonable, and the parties’ seriousness in this matter seems to be attested by the fact that the prodigals have accepted, if under protest and at least for the time, the parent party’s stipulation that the most important positions will not be given to them for three years.

But not everyone has welcomed Mr Mahanta’s return. The most strident opposition comes, ironically enough, from the All Assam Students’ Union. According to Aasu, Mr Mahanta is not only tainted because he was implicated in extra-judicial killings when he was chief minister between 1996 and 2001, but also because his actions are more likely to help the Congress than hinder it. The Aasu’s sharpest criticism against the AGP, which twice governed the state, is that it failed to implement the Assam Accord. The accord agrees upon the identification and deportation of illegal migrants, which has become a sore point once again, with student vigilante groups allegedly seizing bona fide Indian citizens in order to turn them out. This is an old and layered issue, used variously by the different parties at different times. The border is yet to be sealed, and the problem of insurgency addressed. No government has achieved much in any of these areas. Unity in the regional formation would be a good front against the Congress, but to be useful to the state, the AGP’s internal rivalries have to be under reasonable control. Although its ousted president, Brindaban Goswami, has said he will not cause another split, Aasu has promised to carry on with its protest against Mr Mahanta. The reunited AGP must be very sure of what its priorities are if it is to matter in the next elections and make a difference to the condition of the people in the state.