Pegu does volte-face

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, April 19: Newly elected Dhemaji MLA Ranuj Pegu took oath as a member of the Assam Legislative Assembly today. Deputy Speaker Dilip Paul administered the oath of office.

Former Mising Autonomous Council (MAC) CEM, Pegu fought the Dhemaji Assembly bye-poll on April 9 on BJP ticket after joining the party.   After the oath-taking ceremony when the media asked him if he would be given a berth in Chief Minister Sarbanda Sonowal’s Cabinet, Pegu said: “That’s not the matter. I know not what the Chief Minister and the party will entrust me to perform. I’m ready to do with sincerity what the Chief Minister asks me to.” Ranuj Pegu claimed to fame in the political realm in the State as the leader of Ga Shakti, vehemently opposing the Lower Subansiri Hydro Electric Power Project under construction at Gerukamukh along the Assam-Aruchal Pradesh border. When reporters asked him what his stand on the Subansiri dam would be, he said: “I never opposed big dam. I just played the role of a critic. Now on the stand of the party and the government on the dam will be mine as well. The government has already held tripartite talks on the dam, and I’m sure that the government isn’t going to take any unilateral decision. I hope the government is going to take a decision which is acceptable to all.”

Meanwhile, the BJP legislators were conspicuous by their absence at the oath-taking ceremony of Pegu today. He had on his erstwhile Ga Shakti colleague Bhuban Pegu with him, and besides BJP's media convener Dhrubajyoti Moral.