Guwahati, May 5: Former Assam Chief Minister and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) founder Prafulla Kumar Mahanta’s chances of returning to the party that had expelled him over three years ago got a major boost on Monday when he visited the regional party’s head office here to discuss unification of all splinter regional parties under one banner.

Mahanta’s visit to the parent AGP’s office lasted fpr 90 minutes during which he discussed the scopes of unification of his break-away AGP(P) with AGP executive president Phani Bhushan Choudhury and other members of a sub-committee constituted to explore the reunification process.

“It is important that the regional groups come under one umbrella and put up a united fight against the corrupt and anti-people Government led by the Congress party,” Mahanta said after the meeting. He, however, refused to say when the unification would occur, only stating that it was major step towards unification.

AGP executive president Choudhury, on the other hand, said the day was not far away when all the AGP factions and other regional groups would unite. “Monday was a crucial day when we held separate discussions with the AGP(P), Trinamul Gana Parishad (TGP) and some other factions and broke a lot of barriers,” Choudhury said.

Mahanta and Choudhury also issued a joint statement saying the two sides expressed unanimity in carrying forward the process to unite the regional parties in order to solve the problems of the state.

It was on July 3, 2005, that the AGP had expelled Mahanta for his alleged anti-party activities, including floating a separate entity called AGP(P). Earlier, Mahanta was forced to quit the party’s president’s post in the wake of a raging controversy over an allegation of bigamy.