Congress set to form government: Sankar

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, March 18:  Newly joined Congress leader Sankar Prasad Ray has said that the Congress is set to form the government in Assam and the BJP will have to remain content with 15-20 seats.

Talking to newsmen at Rajiv Bhavan in the city today, the former All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) president said: “The ruling Congress will make it to Dispur for the fourth term in a row with a comfortable majority. The BJP, on the other hand, will have to remain content with 15 to 20 seats.”

In his scathing attack on the BJP and Himanta Biswa Sarma, Ray said: “The BJP is a commul party that forgets assurances it gives to people. Himanta Biswa Sarma was on record saying during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as a Congress leader that the blood of Muslims flows through water-carrying pipes in Gujarat. Does he want to make the flow of Muslims’ blood through water-carrying pipes a reality in Assam as well. Assam is a place where people from diverse casts and creed live together. Commulism has no room here.”

Criticizing the list of BJP candidates for the Assembly election in the State, the former AASU leader said: “The first list of the party has only one Koch-Rajbongshi candidate. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, on the other hand, has shown due respect to the Koch-Rajbongshi community. Apart from according ST status to the Koch-Rajbongshis once, the Chief Minister instituted the Vir Chilarai Award. However, the BJP has been doing politics on the issue of ST status to the six ethnic groups. Had the BJP-led government been willing to accord ST status to the six communities, it would have at least published an Ordince for that purpose.”

Ray further said: “We’re elated to see Himanta Biswa Sarma is destroying the BJP. He was a bad omen for the Congress as well. He is such a know-it-all person that he thinks politics in Assam will follow the course where he treads. Such a thinking has every reason to fail. Sarma blames it on the Chief Minister for the 26 lakh unemployed youths in the State. How come he shrug of his responsibility of the dismal employment scerio in the State even though he had been one of the prominent ministers’ in Gogoi Cabinet, besides being his blue-eyed boy? Sarma flays the Congress’ list of candidates because the ruling party has expelled Sarma’s ‘varat members’ infamous for running syndicates in the State.”

On Himanta’s allegation of the Congress going family-centric, Ray said: “Those who have got Congress tickets are eligible candidates. MP Gaurav Gogoi could prove his ability by raising the problems of Assam on the floor of Parliament in clear terms. Perhaps Bijoya Chakraborty’s daughter Sumon Haripriya getting a BJP ticket is not known to Sarma. He doesn’t need to give any suggestions to the Congress. Rather he should give such suggestions to BJP leaders like Ram Madhab.”

When asked as to why he deserted the BJP after joining it, Ray said: “It’s difficult to know the BJP from outside. After joining the party only, I came to know that the party only gives assurances that it never wants to solve. Even if I don’t get ticket, I won’t leave the party. On issues like that Bangladeshis, big dams etc., the BJP maintains double standards. The AGP and the BJP are no sacred cows.”

When asked as to why he joined the Congress which he had battered the worst as an AASU leader, Ray said: “I raised the issues of Assam as an AASU leader. Now I’ll raise all such issues from within the Congress.”