Congress rebels set Sunday deadline for Gogoi’s ouster

GUWAHATI: Fast running out of patience, the dissident Congress MLAs in Assam have set Sunday deadline for the party high command to take a decision regarding their demand for change of chief minister in the State even as Tarun Gogoi stated that he was not going to resign bowing to the pressure from rebel MLAs.
A group of five dissident Congress legislators -Pradan Baruah, Binanda Saikia, Mansing Rongpi, Bidya Sing Engleng and Habul Chakraborty, speaking on behalf of all the 55 anti-Gogoi MLAs said, “We have been waiting for a decision from the high command after AICC leader Mallikarjun Kharge had spoken one-to-one with all the party MLAs here on June 23 to take stock of the crisis in the CLP in the wake of poor show of the party Lok Sabha polls under the leadership of chief minister Tarun Gogoi. 55 of the total 78 Congress MLAs had asked for change of chief minister before Kharge. We still have confidence in the party high command and hope that a decision will be taken in tune with our demand. We, therefore, decided to wait till Sunday next for a decision from the high command before we announce our next course of action.”
The dissident MLAs said that the party high command was well aware of what was happening within the Congress Legislature Party here and ignoring the problem was not going to solve the same.
“We had submitted before the High Command the problems of ethnic violence, law and order etc., which have worsened because of inefficient leadership on part of the incumbent chief minister and wanted a change of leadership. 55 Congress MLAs have demanded change of chief minister in a democratic manner before high command. So, we are hopeful that a decision will be taken soon by the party high command.”
The dissident MLAs led by health and education minister, Himanta Bishwa Sarma, have been demanding for change of the chief minister in Assam for the last two years and the pressure from the rebel MLAs has mounted after the last Lok Sabha election where Congress managed to win only three seats out of 14 seats in Assam. The party had won seven seats in 2009 polls.