Gogoi to continue as Assam CM

Correspondent Guwahati, May 22 [dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Congress leadership has “turned down” Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s bid to resign. But the state’s health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that the chief minister’s resignation letter was neither accepted nor rejected. “The chief minister met (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi and offered to quit but his resignation letter was not accepted,” Assam MLA and former minister Anjan Dutta told journalists in New Delhi. His statement was buttressed by the party’s state unit chief Bhubaneswar Kalita and former DONER minister BK Handique. “The chief minister is doing his job and has been advised to continue to do so,” Handique said in the national capital. But Sarma disputed their claim. “(Congress leader) CP Joshi told me over the phone that the chief minister’s resignation letter was neither accepted nor rejected,” he said. Quoting Joshi, he further said that the congress leadership would soon send some observers to the state to hold deliberations with party legislators.There are reports doing the rounds that the Congress rebels would meet the governor on Friday and bring a no-confidence motion against Gogoi. Dutta and Handique are among a group of state Congress leaders including some ministers camping in the national capital to ensure Gogoi’s continuance as the chief minister. They made the statements soon after a meeting with Gogoi. The Congress in Assam has been plagued by growing dissidence for some time now with Sarma leading the anti-Gogoi campaign. The latest development is being seen as a setback for the party rebels. They had for long been vociferously demanding change of leadership. In fact, 45 of the 78 Congress legislators in the state had on Wednesday jointly written to the party high command seeking Gogoi’s ouster. They had chosen Sarma as their chief ministerial candidate. Congress sources said prior to his meeting with Gandhi, Gogoi had separately met party leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vohra besides Joshi but they advised him to continue as the chief minister.The Congress, which has been ruling Assam since 2001, managed to win just three seats in the parliamentary elections. The BJP had virtually decimated the Congress by winning seven of the 14 seats. Complacency, arrogance and infighting were largely blamed for the Congress’ worst-ever poll debacle in the state. Soon after the declaration of poll results on May 16, Gogoi had wished to resign taking moral responsibility for the poll debacle.