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Journalism of Courage
GUWAHATI, MARCH 16: With the Congress party high-command announcing the schedule for organisational elections all over the country, hectic lobbying has begun in the party’s Assam unit too, with Hemaprabha Saikia, widow of former chief minister Hiteswar Saikia setting her eyes on the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president’s chair.
Currently an MLA from Nazira, the seat which her husband had held since 1972 till his death in April, 1996, except for a brief stint when he was packed off as Mizoram governor in 1986-90, Hemaprabha Saikia last week sent a delegation to Sonia Gandhi to campaign in her favour. The delegation told Sonia Gandhi that the present APCC chief Tarun Gogoi, a Lok Sabha member, was a weak leader who has not been able to build up any campaign against the Assom Gana Parishad-led Government in the State despite the common people demanding his removal even before the party polls were completed. Led by former Lok Sabha members Swaroop Upadhyaya and Prabin Deka, the pro-Hemaprabhadelegation, however, could not extract any assurance from Sonia Gandhi for obvious reasons. Sources said the delegation also told Sonia Gandhi that organisational elections under Gogoi would not be free and fair, as he was apparently surrounded by a strong coterie which has a tremendous influence on him.
The group also apprehended fake membership by the coterie surrounding the present APCC chief, apart from complaining that controversial Lok Sabha member and APCC treasurer Mani Kumar Subba had allegedly brought in a number of persons with criminal tendencies as party office-bearers on the eve of the party polls. Gogoi’s supporters too have dispatched a delegation to Delhi which in turn has tried to impress the high command that all that the Hemaprabha camp was talking about was not true. Gogoi, according to this camp, was running the party efficiently with the victory of the party in nine Lok Sabha seats out of 14 in the last elections being the biggest proof. The two camps are likely to go for a showdownlater this week when senior party leader Arjun Singh arrives in Guwahati to attend a minority convention.
