Phani Bhusan Choudhury: A saga from classroom to Parliament

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: This is the story of a mathematics teacher in the state who is now set to step into the hallowed portals of Parliament, following the declaration of his victory in the Lok Sabha election recently. He is none other than the senior-most politician in the state, Phani Bhusan Choudhury of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the political party of Assam with a regional ideology.

Choudhury, who made it to the Assam Legislative Assembly way back on January 9, 1986, and made the State House no less than his abode since then, tendered his resignation letter to the Assam Assembly Speaker as an MLA. He is now set to start his new journey in the Lok Sabha.

All senior AGP leaders, including its president, Atul Bora, took the veteran politician from his MLA hostel to the Assam Assembly Secretariat on foot. In the presence of all senior officials of the Assam Assembly Secretariat, a misty-eyed Chodhury handed over his resignation letter to the Assembly Speaker, Biswajit Daimary.

Speaking to the media after tendering his resignation, Choudhury said, “I was elected as an MLA from the Bongaigaon LAC on December 16, 1985, for the first time, and took oath of office on January 9, 1986. My 38-year journey as an MLA came to an end today. I can never forget the love and support that the people of Bongaigaon have shown me since 1985. I will always remain grateful to them. The people of Bongaigaon treat me as one of their family members. I was an all-weather companion to them. I started my career as a teacher and never thought of becoming an MLA. This way, I may best be called an accidental MLA. This time, too, I had no pre-planning to contest the Lok Sabha election. Since the party fielded my candidature from the Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency, I filed my nominations. This time too, I’m an accidental Member of Parliament. I will be grateful to the people of Barpeta Parliamentary Constituency and all the leaders and workers of our alliance parties for the blessings and support I received from them. Since the lower house in the parliament is a new experience for me, I will try my best to raise local issues.”

On the AGP, Choudhury said, “I have my faith in regionalism and will work for it till my last breath. I will try to be with the people of my parliamentary constituency as their representative.”

Speaking on the occasion, AGP president and Minister Atul Bora said, “Phani Bhushan Choudhury is not a man but an institution in himself. He is well-known to every wall of the Assam Legislative Assembly because of his long 38-year stint as an MLA without any break. He has a vast knowledge of Assembly proceedings, and we used to rush to him as the senior-most MLA for every complicated issue. I thank the people of Bongaigaon LAC for electing him as their MLA for eight consecutive terms. The AGP had a long dry spell in the Lok Sabha, and his win from the Barpeta Parliamentary Constituency will work as a spell of rain, giving us fresh vigour. I also thank the people of the Barpeta parliamentary constituency for showering their blessing on Chudhury. I also thank all the leaders and cadres of our alliance parties for their support of our candidate.”

Choudhury was originally a mathematics teacher at Birjhara Girls’ High School in Bongaigaon. He worked in that capacity there for 6-7 years before joining politics in 1985, when AGP was formed in Golaghat following the six-year-long Assam Agitation in the early 1980s. He was actively involved in the Assam Movement, launched to protest the unabated infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals into the state, which was feared to change the demography of the state.

After joining the AGP, a party that espoused the cause of regionalism as its political ideology, he resigned from the post of mathematics teacher in the said school. He was twice a cabinet minister, once during the 1996–2001 tenure of the AGP government and later during the term of the BJP–AGP coalition government from 2018 to 2021.

Also Read: Don't want another division of Assam: MLA Phani Bhusan Choudhury (sentinelassam.com)

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