Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is in New Delhi to take up the issue of reshuffle in the State Cabinet with the senior leaders of All India Congress Committee (AICC).
Sources in the Chief Ministers’ Office informed that Gogoi will meet senior AICC leader CP Joshi on Saturday and he is expected to meet AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday, before returning to the State.
However, with Gogoi leaving for New Delhi, a rebel Congress legislator, who was dropped from the Cabinet earlier this year due to his involvement in dissident activities, also announced that he would also leave for the Capital to meet the party high command.
“I am also leaving for New Delhi after Deepawali along with some other legislators to meet the party high command. I am a responsible member of the Congress and I must inform the top leadership about what is happening in the party here. The Congress in Assam is no better condition than it was in Maharashtra and Haryana and I must inform this to the AICC leadership as we are having the State elections in 2016,” said Siddeque Ahmed, former State Border Area Development Minister.
Ahmed, however, did not clear as to who all will be leaving for Delhi with him.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who led the party to victory in three State elections consecutively since 2001, had faced severe dissident activities from amongst the party in the current term. Several Cabinet Ministers and some legislators had earlier this year met the AICC high command seeking a
change in the party leadership in the State ahead of the 2016 elections.
The AICC leadership including Sonia Gandhi, however, sent emissaries in the form of senior AICC leaders including CP Joshi and Mallikarjun Kharge to the State twice within short period to talk to the dissidents and reposed their faith on Gogoi.
Meanwhile, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), however, feels that the Chief Minister’s move will only boomerang on the party ahead of the 2016 polls.
“Gogoi can neither remove the non-performing Ministers in the Cabinet not he can accommodate the new aspirants as in both cases the numbers are high. The move will only affect the party negatively, which had been going through a bad phase as of now in Assam,” said an APCC member on condition of anonymity.