Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to resign within a week

GUWAHATI: Attributing a bit of "arrogance and complacency" within himself and the Congress for the party's poor show in the the Lok Sabha elections in Assam, Tarun Gogoi today said he would resign within a week as its chief minister.

Gogoi, however said, "I will not leave politics and will continue to work for recovering the party from the current position."

He had said yesterday that he would send his resignation to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

"When you win three terms as Chief Minister, some amount of arrogance and complacency set in. This was of course the case with me as well as the party. We thought nobody could defeat us. We forgot that we had lost earlier," Gogoi told a press conference here.

Among other reasons for Congress drubbing in the polls, he said, "This is the first debacle since I am here. Probably there was a communication gap with the people. Our campaign was probably not up to the mark. Our publicity did not fulfill our agenda."

Gogoi also claimed that "Modi's marketing was very good and in today's time, marketing is very important".

He congratulated Modi and BJP for their spectacular win and hoped the new government would fulfill the aspirations of the people of the state.

"I expect Modi will give new projects and schemes to Assam. Also, I hope to get some incentives and concessions as Assam is not a producing state. I hope he will be able to control the rising inflation," he added.

He accepted that he failed to judge the Modi wave and the under current and the party probably failed to communicate with the people who were unhappy with the Congress.

The Congress also failed to attract new voters, he said, attributing other reasons for the party's failure.

Asked whether dissidence played a role in the party's defeat in the state, he said "Differences are always there. It was there in the past also. But I do not think that is the reason for our defeat."

The senior Congress leader, however, hoped that the party would rise again.

"During Emergency also, there was a tsunami. Everyone thought Congress was finished. But Indira Gandhi along with Sanjay rebuilt the party."

He said that a constituency wise analysis would be made for ascertaining the reasons for such a bad defeat.