Congress celebrates ‘Ullas Divas’ for “getting rid” of Himanta

PTI
GUWAHATI, AUGUST 28

THE Congress today celebrated the day as “Ullas Divas” (happy day) for “getting rid” of Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is joining the BJP party, within a month of being named as a key accused in the Louis Berger scam. The Congress also decided to issue show-cause notices to a number of party workers and MLAs, who went to the airport to receive Sarma, who returned from New Delhi after meeting BJP President Amit Shah to formally join the party this afternoon.“Today we are very happy. In all district offices in Assam, people today broomed the campuses and cleaned the waste. It is symbolic to say that Himanta is just a waste as he led the dissident faction for the last few years and impacted the party’s image in the state,” an Assam Pradesh Congress Committee official told PTI.
He said the party celebrated the day as “Ullas Divas”, distributed sweets among workers and blasted crackers. “We also burnt his effigy in front of our state office in Guwahati. Himanta was a man who took all benefits from Congress and is now shifting his ideology to have personal benefits,” the Congress worker alleged. Congress party, he said, was very happy today to “get rid of Himanta”, who was named by BJP as a key accused in the Louis Berger bribery case in a document published about a month ago.
Sarma was also grilled by CBI in connection with his alleged involvement in the multi-croreSaradha chit fund scam. The Congress and in particular Assam Chief Minister TarunGogoi has reiterated several times this week that Sarma’s departure will not affect the ruling party in the forthcoming Assembly elections in 2016.