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Journalism of Courage
Will Tarun Gogoi become the chief minister if the Congress gets majority in the Assembly twice in a row? With nine days to go for counting, there are already signs within the ruling party that Gogoi is not a hot favourite.
Leaders of the anti-Gogoi lobby include Guwahati MP Kirip Chaliha, who has gone on record saying Chief Minister Gogoi and other leaders would be to blame if the Congress does not fare well. Among the other leaders he indicated is Himanta Biswa Sharma, the youngest member of the Gogoi ministry that is holding charge till the election process gets over with the counting of votes on May 11. Sharma, instead, today told a press conference that it was up to Congress president Sonia Gandhi to decide who would be the next chief minister.
‘‘There is no doubt the Congress will emerge the winner. But as far as selecting a chief minister is concerned, the tradition has been to leave it to the Congress high command. In the case of Assam, Sonia Gandhi will directly decide, of course in consultation with the elected members,’’ Sharma, who is Planning and Development Minister in the Gogoi government, said.
But before that, several senior leaders are already projecting themselves as prospective chief minister in case the party comes to power. Among these leaders are PCC chief Bhubaneswar Kalita, who is in the habit of recalling his proximity to Rajiv Gandhi, and Paban Singh Ghatowar, a leader of the tea labourers’ community who was unceremoniously ousted from the PCC president’s post by the pro-Gogoi lobby after he lost the 2004 Lok Sabha elections at Dibrugarh.
Some party leaders say the high command is not inclined to reappoint Gogoi as chief minister — the names doing the rounds in Delhi include Sarat Barkataki and Devananda Konwar apart from PCC chief Kalita. Among staunch Gogoi detractors are Union minister Santosh Mohan Deb, Lok Sabha members Mani Kumar Subba and AF Golam Osmani and Rajya Sabha members Silvius Condpan and Dwijen Sharma.
The name of Union minister BK Handique too has been propped up for the chief minister’s post, though party insiders claim Handique was a member of the pro-Gogoi lobby and that he was being projected more as a buffer between the two lobbies.
