’Dissidence led to Congress’s debacle in Assam’

New Delhi, July 6: The Delhi introspection of the Congress over its drubbing in the last general elections in Assam pointed at the dissidence in the party as a major reason for its debacle.

The AICC leaders including AK Antony, Mukul Wasnik and Avinash Pandey had elaborate meetings with State leaders including Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, APCC president Bhubaneswar Kalita, BK Handique, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Nilmoni Sen Deka, Anjan Dutta and Pijush Hazarika and discussed the reasons for the “historic debacle”.

Interestingly, meetings with all the State leaders took place separately. Sources in the Congress said that the AICC leaders would submit the report to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi, after which, a final decision would be taken how to restore the party’s image in the State.

Sources said that the AICC would take the decision keeping in mind the 2016 Assembly elections in Assam.

Sunday’s meeting continued for more than four hours where all the State Congress leaders were asked to give their opinions separately. “I was told that dissidence in Assam Congress was the main reason behind the party’s debacle,” BK Handique said.

Echoing the view, Anjan Dutta and Bhubaneswar Kalita said that apart from dissidence, indiscipline was also a major factor for the party’s debacle. “Price rise and polarization of votes acted against us. We were also not successful in the implementation of the Central government schemes in the State,” Bhubaneswar Kalita said.

Interestingly, Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters that his meeting with the Central leaders of the party was mainly dwelt on party’s prospect in the 2016 Assembly elections.

“We have discussed how to make good results in the next Assembly elections,” Himanta said.

(Source) The Sentinel Assam — The Largest Media group of North-East India — focused on news publishing. Combined circulation of the group is over 120,000 newspapers per day, making it the largest newspaper group in the region. The Sentinel is the only English daily in the Northeast India with five editions published simultaneously from Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Shillong, Silchar and Itanagar. For all local, news from Assam, national and international news please visit http://www.sentinelassam.com/