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North East : Assam : Gogoi wins party trust test |
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Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi who has been facing rough weather within his own Congress party silenced his detractors last week by securing the support of majority of the MLAs, including the Chandan Sarkar-led group of 37 Ministry aspirants, in the presence of AICC observer Mohsina Kidwai.
A Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting was hurriedly convened on September 4 to set the record straight. To the disappointment of people eager to see him falter, Gogoi not only managed to secure the support of his MLAs, but also earned a positive appraisal of his leadership from Kidwai during a rally at Rajiv Bhawan after the meeting.
Gogoi’s hold on the party had appeared to be loosening when the Sarkar-led group submitted a memorandum to him, seeking a slice of the power pie.
Reports say the group of 37 was planning to convey their grievances to party president Sonia Gandhi through Kidwai, but the chief minister scuttled the move by convening the CLP meeting.
In the evening, the Gogoi camp sprang another surprise by seeking the ouster of Barpeta MP Golam Osmani from the post of chairperson of the PCC’s minority department. In a memorandum to Kidwai, 16 of the 17 Congress legislators and ministers representing the minorities sought his removal by accusing him of anti-party activities.
Osmani had raised doubts about the effectiveness of the Gogoi government at a news conference just before Kidwai’s arrival on September 3.
Though Gogoi remained entrenched in the saddle, murmurs of discontent continued to echo in the corridors of Rajiv Bhawan, swarmed by party activists who had come from various parts of the state to meet and listen to Kidwai.
Assuring these Congress members that the government was in safe hands, the AICC observer said she and the high command had been apprehensive of an Arunachal Pradesh-like crisis in Assam but were reassured after a proper assessment of the situation.
“After coming here, I found that there is absolutely no threat to the Congress government under Gogoi’s leadership and there is no truth in media reports,” she said.
Kidwai urged ministers, legislators, PCC leaders and grassroots-level workers to sink their differences and work towards the goal of winning all the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam and making Sonia Gandhi the next Prime Minister.
Addressing the gathering, Gogoi accused the media of being party to the AGP and BJP’s gameplan to overthrow the Congress. He proposed that the ruling party should publish a newspaper to counter the propaganda about discontent in the party.
Sources said disgruntled party leaders refrained from publicly airing their grievances, but were far from quiet at closed-door meetings of the co-ordination committee.
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