Trouble brews for Cong in Assam with MLAs threatening to quit party posts

Guwahati, April 9 (IANS): All is not well at the Congress camp in Assam with at least three MLAs expressing displeasure over the state leaders and resigning from their party posts.

Though the three legislators, and Assam Pradesh Congress President Bhupen Borah denied the resignations, the latest development fuelled a further rift within the opposition party.

The displeasure began with the recent appointments of a few district presidents of the party across the state. In Cachar, Tamal Banik, a close aide of Assam Congress working president Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, was replaced by a 'less popular' leader, Abhijit Paul, which made Purkayastha furious.

The Congress leader claimed that despite being a working president of the party in the state, he was not even informed before making the change.

Cachar falls within southern Assam's Barak valley, where Purkayastha holds good influence among the party workers. He won as an MLA in the assembly elections from that region three times in a row.

Puraksyastha questioned: "If I was not informed about a change in the organisational structure in my area, why should I continue in the post of working president?"

He informed the party in-charge in Assam, Jitendra Singh, about this and sent a letter expressing the desire to quit the party post.

Singh dialled Purkayastha and urged him not to step down. Singh told the three-time Congress MLA that he would visit Assam to end the logjam.

According to sources, Purkayastha has been waiting for Singh to arrive here. He even told his supporters that the whole episode was like a humiliation to him.

But not only Purkasyastha, a few other MLAs also expressed anger over how the state leaders were behaving towards the legislators.

Nandita Das, a two-time MLA from Boko constituency, was recently slapped with a show-cause notice when she was recording visuals of a party meeting attended by a central leader. A section of the state's Congress leaders accused Das of working at the behest of the BJP.

Though Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah said he was satisfied with Das's reply, the whole incident has angered a few other MLAs.

They have opened a front against the Assam Pradesh Congress leaders, claiming that the legislators were not given the honour and respect they deserve in the organisational structures.

Along with Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, two other MLAs -- Misbahul Islam Laskar and Khalil Uddin Majumdar -- reportedly tendered their resignation from party posts following the difference.

Sensing a possible storm, Bhupen Borah called an urgent meeting on Saturday.

Following that, Borah said: "A section of the media was falsely propagating the news of the resignation of MLAs. I have not received any resignation letters."

Leader of the Opposition in Assam assembly Debarata Saikia said: "In a democratic party like Congress, someone may express his or her displeasure, but nobody was giving any resignations."

The MLAs also tried to evade the questions over leaders quitting party posts on Sunday. However, a party source informed that the legislators have been preparing to take the whole issue to the party high command.