APCC suspends Himanta

Himanta has no ideology, fulmites Gogoi

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, Aug 25: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee on Tuesday suspended former Congress  strongman Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, serving him a show cause notice for indulging in anti-party activities.

An APCC press release stated that Sarma has been suspended as he accompanied BJP State president Siddhartha Bhattacharya to the residence of BJP tiol president Amit Shah and later “leveled certain wild and baseless allegations against the party high command and the chief minister of Assam”.

The release also said that Sarma has been given 15 days time to respond to the show cause notice.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday said that Sarma, who has decided to join the BJP, does not have any ideology. “Himanta does not have any ideology. That is why he has joined a commul party,” Gogoi said in New Delhi.

Sarma had on Sunday met BJP president Amit Shah at the latter’s residence and announced his decision to join the party. When asked about Sarma’s allegation that he was humiliated in the Congress for the past 13 months, Gogoi said, “If he felt humiliated, why was he in the party for so long?”

Terming Sarma as a selfish person, Gogoi said, “How can Modi, who was at one time his (Himanta Biswa Sarma’s) enemy, become so close now?”

Replying to a question on greater likelihood of a Congress defeat in the 2016 assembly elections in Sarma’s absence, Gogoi said: “We had lost the last Lok Sabha election even when Himanta was there in the party.”