New Delhi: A day after he resigned as chairman of Assam Food and Civil Supplies Corporation, BJP leader Rajen Gohain accused Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of having a “tactic understanding with All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal”, in conversation with ThePrint.
Gohain’s resignation Friday was in protest over the delimitation of Nagaon (or Nowgong) Lok Sabha constituency, which he has represented four times.
Speaking to ThePrint Saturday, Gohain, a former Union minister, said he “failed to understand the logic behind the delimitation of Nagaon seat, and why the CM has given this Lok Sabha seat to (minority leader) Badruddin Ajmal and what is the understanding between the two”.
The Election Commission’s (EC) final order on the delimitation of parliamentary and assembly seats in Assam came into effect Wednesday.
According to Gohain, Nagaon comprised nine assembly segments which were dominated by indigenous Assamese people. After delimitation, he said, “four of Nagaon’s assembly segments have been put under Kaziranga Lok Sabha seat”, thereby changing the seat’s demography and making it “minority-dominated”.
He added: “I fail to understand the logic behind this. The Nagaon constituency has become unwinnable for the BJP in the future due to demographic changes.”
Gohain alleged the same in his resignation letter to Sarma, stating that “despite having numerous rounds of discussions with you, I am afraid that my concerns and deep dissatisfaction on the way the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency has been constituted did not bring any change whatsoever”. ThePrint has a copy of his resignation letter.
The BJP leader further wrote that he had apprised Union home minister Amit Shah about his concerns and that he had asked “me to give recommendations in writing”.
“I did (that) the very next day but unfortunately it did not bring any positive outcome…. I feel betrayed and almost disrespected that a senior member like myself was not heard by his own party leaders on a genuine concern for the party’s benefit,” he said.
Gohain’s public airing of his discontent has also brought to the fore the tensions in the BJP’s cadre in Assam, a state it rules in alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL).
Speaking to ThePrint, Gohain hit out at the BJP saying that “absolute power given to one person” had created “imbalance in the state unit”.
Claiming that Assam BJP had been built “with our sweat and blood”, he added, “I am not going against the BJP, which we built with our sweat and blood. (But) the Nagaon constituency has been handed over to the other party,” he said.
“I have expressed my dissatisfaction over the Nagaon constituency several times. Sarma says said that he would preserve the culture of the Assamese community and Hindutva, but it does not show in action. Only stating that we (BJP) do not need the votes of ‘miya’ [Muslim] community is not enough,” he alleged.
When asked about Gohain’s allegations, Assam BJP spokesperson Pabitra Margherita, told ThePrint: “We have not yet discussed the delimitation of Nagaon at any party forum. Once the discussion happens, we will get to know the concerns.”
The EC’s delimitation notification has raised widespread discontent in Assam political circles, with the opposition Congress and AIUDF accusing the poll body of bias towards the ruling BJP.
The poll panel on 11 August published its final report on the delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies in Assam, keeping their total number unchanged at 126 and 14, respectively. It also revised the nomenclature of 19 assembly constituencies and one parliamentary constituency.
Nineteen assembly and two Lok Sabha constituencies have been reserved for Scheduled Tribes, while one Lok Sabha constituency and nine assembly constituencies have been reserved for Scheduled Castes.
The AIUDF had alleged last year that, through the delimitation process, the “intention is only to tamper with the population of Muslim-dominated seats”.
Earlier this month, senior AGP MLA Pradip Hazarika resigned from all posts in his party over the abolition of his Amguri seat in the final delimitation report.
AGP minister Atul Bora told the media that “some of our suggestions (on delimitation) were addressed but many were not addressed. However, it has not been done by the party or Assam government”.
‘Absolute power lies with one person’
Gohain claimed the BJP’s rise in Assam began after he won the Nagaon parliamentary constituency (in 1999) and became the party’s Assam president in the early 2000s.
He also alleged that it was the BJP’s alliance with the AGP in 2014 that led to the downfall of the party in Nagaon, which went to the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Gohain was denied a ticket by the party in the previous general election.
“If he [a possible reference to Sarma , though he didn’t name him] doesn’t want to give a ticket to me, that’s okay but don’t (work to) defeat the BJP,” Gohain told ThePrint.
“We nurtured the party with sweat when it was not a force in Assam. Under my tenure as state president, I sent the first Rajya Sabha MP from the state. But today, absolute power lies with one person. There are no checks and balances. It’s harmful,” he added.
Gohain further alleged that the situation in the state unit was a result of its leadership which “must be answerable to other party members”.
“When the leader does not listen to party members, things are bound to deteriorate,” he said.
When asked about the current Assam BJP leadership, Gohain said: “I am not saying (unit chief) Bhabesh Kalita is not capable, though he is unable to take any decision independently.”
Gohain is among several other Assam BJP leaders who were denied tickets by the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and who are now voicing apprehensions before the general elections of 2024.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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