CPI(ML) suffers setback in Assam as top leaders quit

CPI(ML) suffers setback in Assam as top leaders quit
SAMUDRA GUPTA KASHYAP

GUWAHATI, AUG 8: The CPI(ML) Liberation has suffered a major setback in Assam with two top leaders -- Holiram Terang and Samarjit Haflongbar -- quitting the party while accusing its top leader in the state, Dr Jayanta Rongpi, of being corrupt.

While announcing his resignation from the party, Terang, also an MLA, alleged that the central committee of the party was more interested in protecting Dr Rongpi instead of taking action against him. ``We had joined the CPI(ML) with great hopes because the party apparently had a vision. But today we have found that some of the recent decisions of the party's central committee are against the aspirations of the people of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills of Assam,'' Terang said.

The CPI(ML) has a strong presence in the two hill districts of the state, with the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC), the ruling party in the autonomous councils of the two districts, being used as a frontal organisation.

Dr Rongpi, formerly president of the ASDC, is also the lone Lok Sabha member of the CPI(ML). While he won twice as an ASDC candidate, he declared himself a CPI(ML) nominee in the 1999 elections. Both Dr Rongpi and Terang are also central committee members of the CPI(ML).

The resignation of Terang and Haflongbar from the CPI(ML) has also caused a vertical split in the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC), with one faction headed by Dr Rongpi and the other by Terang. Differences between the two leaders had only recently led to a high-voltage drama in the autonomous council in Karbi Anglong, with the development process in the hill district coming to a standstill. Then, Dr Rongpi and Terang quit the posts of ASDC president and general secretary respectively and were replaced by Chandra Kanta Terang and Hem Sing Tisso. Subsequently, however, Terang also complained that both C.K Terang and Tisso were Dr Rongpi's ``stooges''.

The Chief Executive Member (CEM) of the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council was also replaced, with Jotson Bey making way for Majori Hanse, who is also perceived to be a Rongpi loyalist.

Now, Holiram Terang has complained that while the replacement of the CEM of the KAAC was made in an ``undemocratic manner'', the state Governor also acted arbitrarily by immediately recognising him.

The split in the ASDC has come as a big blow to the movement for a separate autonomous state comprising Karbi Anglong, which the ASDC had originally demanded. Terang has now vowed to make Dr Rongpi ``totally irrelevant'' in state politics and has announced that he will soon embark upon the task of totally revamping the ASDC in the greater interest of the Karbi tribals ``who have been betrayed by a corrupt Dr Rongpi''.