From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Even as Prime Minister and Congress candidate Manmohan Singh’s victory is certain in the May 30 Rajya Sabha elections in Assam, the selection of Satiuse Kujur, a leader from tea workers’ (Adivasi) community in Assam, as the second candidate of the ruling Congress for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha election has not gone down well with a section of senior party MLAs.
The reasons for resentment are many. Senior Congress MLA, Anjan Dutta said if the party high command had to pick somebody from the tea tribe community (65 lakh population), there were many other competent and more popular leaders.
“Kujur is a green horn in Congress who joined the party only in 2009 and hardly knows all parts of Assam. He is not at all a fit candidate to represent the State in the Upper House of the Parliament,” Dutta said.
“Moreover, why the party has to select a candidate only from tea tribe community which has much better representation in Assam assembly as well in the Congress ministry in the State besides a leader of the community, P S Ghatowar is a Union Minister. There are other major communities in the State like Koch-Rajbongshis, Moran, Motok, Tiwa etc. who have sizeable population, but no leader from those communities have been sent to Rajya Sabha by Congress party till date,” Dutt further said.
The legislator informed that along with him about 25 Congress MLAs were not happy about Kujur’s selection as RS poll candidate and would submit a petition to Sonia Gandhi after the RS poll citing reasons for their opposition against Kujur’s candidate.
“Our leader Sonia Gandhi has been misled to select Kujur. Such actions create bad blood in the party and if such a trend is allowed to continue Assam Congress will soon go the way the party has gone in states like UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh,” the MLA said.
Meanwhile, chief minister Tarun Gogoi has tried to played down to opposition to Kujur’s candidature saying everything would be sorted out and the AICC had selected the best one available as second party candidate for Rajya Sabha.
“Anjan sometimes gets angry, but he will cool down soon,” Gogoi said.
State PCC president Bhubaneswar Kalita too said there was no dissidence within the CLP over Kujur’s candidature who was found the best candidate among the 36 aspirants by the AICC. Congress has 79 MLAs in the 126-member Assam Assembly besides 12 MLAs from its ally Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and that will ensure comfortable victory for both the party candidates in Rajya Sabha election.