Congress high command asks Assam CM Tarun Gogoi to pacify rebels

NEW DELHI | GUWAHATI: The Congress high command has directed its besieged Assam chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, to go allout to appease party legislators and accommodate in-house detractors, after the exit of Himanta Biswa Sarma has triggered an exodus of Assam Congress.

According to sources, All India Congress Committee (AICC) has asked Gogoi to urgently fill-up four cabinet vacancies, appoint around 10 party MLAs as parliamentary secretaries with cabinet ranks and name chairpersons of boards and commissions.

AICC has already cleared the list comprising nominees to be inducted in the state Cabinet and those to be made parliamentary secretaries. The directions to Gogoi coincides with around 10 Congress MLAs, owing allegiance to Sarma, seeking admission in Bharatiya Janata Party. The Sarma camp is expected to activate its plot anytime after Durga Puja.

Though the high command, especially Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and his advisors, took a rigid stand on the issue of Sarma's tussle with Gogoi, the prospects of Sarma taking away many party legislators and organistional functionaries have prompted the high command to act in panic. AICC's directions to Gogoi came after many senior Assam Congress leaders and MPs, considered 'loyalists' had a series of meeting, with party chief Sonia Gandhi and AICC representatives over the last two weeks.