The AGP was born out of six-year long Assam Movement (1979-1985).
Once considered "irrelevant" and faced with bankruptcy, the Asom Gana Parishad or AGP on Sunday took out a motorbike rally of nearly 4,000 men seen trailing behind the party leaders on Royal Enfields in Assam. The show of strength by the AGP - one of the oldest BJP allies in the northeast region - comes at a time when the ruling party is trying to expand its stronghold ahead of the 2021 state elections.
The BJP has taken on one of its key ally in Assam - the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) - in the Bodoland polls, a move that indicates it's trying to gain ground after throwing the Congress out of power in the northeast.
"We are still allies to the BJP in the Sarbananda Sonowal-led government. In all likelihood, we will remain allies for 2021 state elections," AGP chief and Assam Agriculture Minister Atul Bora told NDTV. Mr Bora and his two other cabinet colleagues from the AGP had resigned from the cabinet over the centre's controversial citizenship law. Later, however, they had joined the cabinet again.
Drawing a metaphor and talking about the huge Sunday rally, a top party leader said: "Both Royal Enfield - the British-era motorbike company often compared to a hathi (elephant) - and the AGP with election symbol of an elephant were considered obsolete in modern times, and they had a fresh lease of life after they revamped themselves to the present scenario."
The AGP, born out of six-year long Assam Movement (1979-1985), is today pitted against two political parties formed in the recent times with the same motto they follow - regionalism.
"The new political parties are far from being a threat for us," Atul Bora said at a public rally at Bokakhat in upper Assam's Golaghat district that also happens to be his home constituency.
Mr Bora reached there riding a black Royal Enfield with his party member and cabinet minister Keshab Mahanta, who was on a grey bike. Youth behind them were carrying party flags, fluttering in the wind. "855 youths had laid down their lives behind the inception of this party. People's sentiment is attached to us and we are still relevant," Mr Bora said at the meeting.
But the challenges facing the party are different from what it had faced in 2016 when it inked it's alliance with the ruling BJP.
The regional sentiment that it had earned from the six-year-long anti-migrant movement spearheaded by the All Assam Students Union or AASU, its parent body, seem to have fazed after its flip-flop on the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.
AGP, which had earlier opposed the act that gives citizenship to six religious minorities from neighbouring Muslim countries introduced by the BJP, stayed in alliance with the ruling party.
The AASU, along with Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chhatra Parishad, this year floated a political party - Asom Jatiya Parishad. The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, along with 60 other indigenous organisations, launched Raijor Dal to battle the act in the "legislative level" from being implemented in Assam.
Mr Bora, however, is optimistic about his party's chances despite speculations of the newly launched parties fuelled by the anti-CAA sentiments of the Assamese people giving the incumbent alliance government in the state a run for money.
"Look at the crowd that has gathered on our first rally. We are hopeful that we may get more seats than last elections," said Mr Bora while assuring the alliance with BJP is still intact. He sang, danced and interacted with the crowd at Bokakhat.
The party that formed government two-terms in Assam now has 14 seats in the Assembly of which, three are ministers.