Guwahati: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has added fuel to the raging speculations about the change of guards in the state in the wake of 46 out of the total 77 ruling Congress MLAs raising banner of revolt against him under the stewardship of health and education minister Dr Himanta Bishwa Sharma.
Asked for his comment of the reported AICC’s stand on change of chief ministers, Gogoi said, “I can’t give opinion about it. I can neither say ‘yes’ nor say ‘no’ in this regard because it is related to the AICC. I just can say that I am going to Delhi tomorrow to attend a meeting of Congress chief ministers and state PCC presidents convened by the AICC on Monday. Somebody told me that the meeting is all about review of election performance of the party.”
Saying so, Gogoi just broken his about a week-long studied silence over the issue of dissension within the Congress legislature party and thereby encouraged wider speculations in the local media here about possibly decision to be taken by Congress high command on the dissidents’ efforts to unseat Gogoi ‘ to save Congress in Assam.’
A TV channel owned by the wife of dissident Congress minister Dr Sharma has been telecasting bulletin after bulletin quoting unnamed AICC sources that the chief minister of Assam would be changed by the Congress high command along with those of some other states in the country.
Meanwhile, dissident group’s leader Dr Himanta Bishwa Sharma on Friday met Congress leader Ahmed Patel in New Delhi, while a senior minister and a part of dissident brigade Gautom Roy commented that ‘energetic’ Himanta Bishwa Sharma should be put in the driving wheel in Assam by the AICC to help the arty recover from the drubbing it received at the hands of the BJP in Lok Sabha polls in Assam.
Tarun Gogoi could care less when he said that he would not mind if the ally Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) chose to snap ties with Congress.