Bhrigu Phukan was a leader of

Asom Gana Parishad Asom Gana Parishad (translation: ''Assam People's Council'', AGP) is a state political party in Assam, India. The AGP was formed after the historic Assam Accord of 1985 and formally launched at the Golaghat Convention held from 13–14 Octobe ...

and a cabinet minister in

Government of Assam The Government of Assam is the subnational government of Assam, a state of India. It consists of the Governor appointed by the President of India as the head of the state, currently Jagdish Mukhi. The head of government is the Chief Minister, ...

. He was one of the three signatories to the

Assam Accord The Assam Accord was a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement. It was signed in the presence of the then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi on 15 Au ...

. Phukan was born on 25 April 1956. He was elected for three consecutive terms from the prestigious Jalukbari constituency to the

Assam Legislative Assembly The Assam Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Assam. It is housed in Guwahati, the capital city of Assam, geographically situated in present Western Assam region. The Legislative Assembly comprises 126 Me ...

from 1985.

Early life

He was a graduate of

Dibrugarh University Dibrugarh University is a collegiate public state university in the Indian state of Assam. It is located at Dibrugarh, Assam, India. It was set up in 1965 under the provisions of the Dibrugarh University Act, 1965 enacted by the Assam Legislat ...

. He also obtained Law Degree from

Gauhati University Gauhati University, also known as GU, is a Collegiate university, collegiate public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established on 26 January 1948 under the provisions of an Act enacted by the Assam Legislative Assem ...

. He became closely involved in the students union movement during the university days that catapulted him to its leadership. He had been in the vanguard of the anti-foreigners agitation for six years during which period Assam was rocked by unprecedented blood-letting which left close to 900 people dead.

Political career

He was the general secretary of

All Assam Students Union All Assam Students' Union or AASU is a Assamese nationalist students' organisation in Assam, India. It is best known for leading the six-year Assam Movement against Bengalis of both Indian and Bangladeshi origin living in Assam. The leadership, ...

during 1979-85 and jointly spearheaded the Assam Movement with

Prafulla Kumar Mahanta Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is an Indian Politician who was the leader of the Assam Movement, a former Chief Minister of Assam (two terms) and the former President of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a major political party in the Indian state of Assam ...

over the issue of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

i influx. He was one of the three signatories of the

of 1985 along with

. In 1985 after the conclusion of the Assam movement with the signing of the historic Assam Accord, peace was restored in the state, and Phukan along with others founded the

. In December 1985, he became Home minister at the age of 29 after the

won the historic Assembly elections under the Chief Ministership of Mahanta. Phukan later fell out with Mahanta and in February 1991 walked out of

to form the

Natun Asom Gana Parishad Natun Asom Gana Parishad ('New Assamese People's Association') was a political party in the Indian state of Assam. NAGP was formed through a split of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). NAGP was led by former Union Law Minister and MP Dinesh Goswami and ...

. The two factions united three years later and Phukan was appointed executive president of the Asom Gana Parishad. He quit the Asom Gana Parishad again in 1996 following differences with Mahanta and joined another political party. In 2001, Phukan lost as a

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party ...

candidate to

Himanta Biswa Sarma Himanta Biswa Sarma (born 1 February 1969) is an Indian politician serving as the 15th and incumbent Chief Minister of Assam. A former member of the Indian National Congress political party. Sarma joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 23 Augus ...

of the Congress, a student leader whom he had earlier groomed and who joined BJP in 2015. Phukan again returned to the Asom Gana Parishad in 2004 and contested the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

(parliament) elections from Guwahati constituency but lost.

Personal life

He died of multiple organ failure on 20 March 2006 in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and is survived by his wife Indira and a daughter Upasa.

References

1956 births 2006 deaths Assam MLAs 1985–1991 Assam MLAs 1991–1996 Assam MLAs 1996–2001 People from Sivasagar Asom Gana Parishad politicians Nationalist Congress Party politicians from Assam State cabinet ministers of Assam {{Assam-politician-stub