Dissident leaders give ‘ultimatum’ to high command
The dissident leaders of the Congress in Assam on Thursday set a weekend’s deadline to the party high command in New Delhi to resolve the ongoing crisis in the party and the issue of change in the State leadership.
Five of the dissident Congress legislators in Assam on Thursday told the media that they are going to wait till next Saturday for a decision from the party high command and added that they would chalk out the next course of action on Monday.
“Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge had come here last month to assess the situation and had met each party MlA and MP on a one-to-one basis. We want the high command to resolve all issues we placed before him at the earliest,” dissident legislator Binanda Saikia told.
The other dissident legislators of the Congress, who were present at the Press conference included Mansingh Rongpi, Bidyasingh Engleng, Pradan Barua and Habul Chakraborty. The dissidents claimed that they have the support of 55 of the total 77 Congress legislators in the State.
“The high command must come forward to resolve the various issues so that we can function properly as one for the remaining of the two years before next Assembly elections and gain the confidence of people,” Rongpi said.
Saikia also pointed out that they had placed before Kharge a number of issues to be resolved which included among others the functioning of the Government. However, the main demand of the dissident group included a change in the leadership of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.