GUWAHATI The Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam appears to be caught in a cold war between veteran leaders and their younger counterparts.
At least two BJP legislators, one of them a minister in the Sarbananda Sonowal government from 2016-2021, have voiced their concern over the treatment being meted out to senior party leaders.
Their resentment followed the resignation of former MP Rajen Gohain last week as the chairman of the Assam Food and Civil Supplies Corporation to protest the delimitation of the 14 Parliament and 126 Assembly constituencies in the State. The post entailed a Cabinet rank.
Rama Kanta Dewri, the BJP MLA representing the Morigaon constituency, said some people in the party were deviating from its core values.
“The BJP is not somebody’s personal property but is being used as one,” he said, ruing the “lack of respect” shown to leaders like Mr. Gohain, who represented the Nowgong (Nagaon) Lok Sabha constituency four times in a row until 2019.
“It is sad that a leader like Rajen Gohain does not get respect. The contributions of senior leaders should be acknowledged and valued,” Mr. Dewri said, indicating that many BJP leaders were being made to feel unwanted.
Former minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya, an MLA representing the Gauhati East seat, took a swipe at a younger crop of BJP leaders who came from the Congress along with Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
“It is doubtful whether some people joined the party because of its ideals and integrity. They came for some benefits. Many of them opposed the BJP at one point in time and insulted [former Prime Minister] Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Today, they are occupying top posts,” he said.
Information Minister Pijush Hazarika, a former Congress leader who followed Dr. Sarma to the BJP, said: “Siddhartha Bhattacharya ‘dangoria’ [honorific equivalent to Shri] made us join the BJP. If we have done some good work, he should be proud and if we are doing something bad, he should take responsibility.”
Earlier, Tourism Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah criticised Mr Gohain’s accusation that the Chief Minister had the delimitation done to give the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat to Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front on a platter.
“He [Mr Gohain] should be playing with his grandchildren at his age,” Mr. Baruah said.
“The advice, one understands, is also for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who are of the same age as I,” Mr. Gohain retorted before leaving for New Delhi to update the BJP’s Central leadership on the trajectory the party is taking in Assam.
