Assam Congress fights internal bickering and exodus

It was in August this year that former Congress stalwart and former health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had first left the ruling party to join the BJP. The nine MLAs who followed him a little over two months after are said to be die-hard supporters of Sarma, who was for long chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s most trusted lieutenant.

Their joining the BJP is definitely going to cause a major damage to the Congress party. Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Anjan Dutta might say that the departure of “these elements” had only left the Congress stronger. But the reality is that hundreds of their supporters have also shifted loyalty along with them, thus swelling the ranks of the saffron party. It is true that the entry of these nine Congress MLAs would create some discontent among the existing ticket aspirants and other BJP workers in their respective constituencies.

The Congress party, whose morale has been anyway down since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, meanwhile continues to suffer from internal bickering, first because of dissidence led by Sarma and currently a new controversy after one minister named Gogoi’s son Gaurav as the party’s probable chief ministerial candidate for the forthcoming elections.

The BJP on the other hand will have to tread carefully to maintain a balance between the new entrants and the old guards.