|
Chief
‘exiled’, rebels violent, Cong in shambles
Samudra Gupta
Kashyap
Guwahati,
April 25: The Congress in Assam had to literally call in the
fire brigade to tame the flames of discontentment in the party but
the fire reduced to ashes a huge quantity of posters, banners and
other publicity material that had arrived here from Delhi on Tuesday.
Angry supporters
of one aspirant landed up in the Rajiv Bhavan, the Congress state
headquarters, ransacked the office, broke furniture and window panes,
tore down photographs of Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and others,
and finally set on fire the publicity material.
Things are
no different in the districts either. Similar incidents have been
reported from Pathsala in Barpeta district, where supporters of
one deprived aspirant not only vandalised the party office and beat
up the block president and secretary, but also tore off their clothes.
Similar reports have flown in from Nalbari, Hajo, Golaghat, Tinsukia
and other places.
In fact, Assam
Pradesh Congress Committee president and Lok Sabha member Tarun
Gogoi is in deep trouble. He has been accused of dancing to the
tune of controversial MP and lottery king Mani Kumar Subba, while
his general secretary Sarat Borkataki has been charged with collecting
huge sums of money from prospective candidates.
Meanwhile,
a number of senior leaders have turned out to be rebels and filed
nominations as Independents. They include former ministers Mukut
Sharma, Rashidul Haque, Joy Chandra Nagbangshi and Phani Sharma
among others.
The Congress,
as has been reported earlier, had to delay the very process of selecting
candidates with different lobbies and power centres within the party
exerting pressures in different directions. And the net result was:
Gogoi, on arrival from New Delhi with the final list approved by
Sonia Gandhi, was kept confined in his residence for one full day
by irate supporters of deprived applicants.
Senior leaders
of the party have stopped coming to Rajiv Bhavan, and there has
been no party briefing for more than 17 days now. The last time
the Congress held a press briefing was on April 8. Till then, of
course, Gogoi was fully confident that his party would sweep the
polls.
The state Congress
has been a house in trouble since the demise of Hiteswar Saikia
in April, 1996 even as campaigning for the previous Assembly election
was on. And, with Tarun Gogoi taking over, it has been a party with
too many leaders.
The Congress
did come to power in 1991 by polling 28.8 per cent of the votes.
But that was an election when the AGP had just suffered a vertical
split with senior leaders like Dinesh Goswami, Bhrigu Kumar Phukan
and Bijoya Chakravarty moving out to form the Natun Asom Gana Parishad
(NAGP).
The last time
it really got majority vote was way back in 1972, in the post-Bangladesh
elections, when the party polled 53.19 per cent votes. The emergence
of the AGP in 1985 spoilt the prospect of the Congress. In the 1985
elections, the party secured 23.47 per cent votes against 34.54
per cent of the AGP.
The party also
suffered a major split in 1985, with most of the minority leaders
moving out to form the United Minorities Front (UMF). Since then,
the Congress lost its command on the minorities. This time too,
the minorities are by and large against the Congress. The UMF is
still alive and has fielded 15 candidates. The Assam Minorities
Students’ Union (AMSU), a creation of the Congress has decided
to field 28 candidates.
The Congress
hold over the tribals is also over. The influential All Bodo Students’
Union (ABSU) and Bodo People’s Action Committee (BPAC) have
joined hands with the AGP. So has the Autonomous State Demand Committee
(ASDC), a party of the Karbi tribals.
The party has
also failed to project a candidate for the chief minister’s
post.
|
