Assam: Four-Time BJP MP Rajen Gohain Quits Party With 17 Others

Guwahati: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday lauded the long contribution of veteran BJP leader Rajen Gohain who on Thursday left the BJP with 17 others. Pointing out that his son would continue to work for the party, Mr Sarma told reporters that Mr Gohain contributed hugely for the party in various capacity. “I wish him the best for his future politics,” said the chief minister.

Alongside Mr Gohain, Mr Kartik Sen Sinha, a former MLA from the Barak Valley, also left the BJP. Mr Sinha, a few other BJP leaders, and over 500 active party workers, are set to join Congress in Guwahati on Friday, while Mr Gohain has not yet announced his next steps.

Mr Dibyajyoti Likhak, the vice-president of the Jorhat district BJP, and another leader, Mr Saurav Baishya, also resigned from their position and the party’s primary membership, citing dissatisfaction with the party’s functioning.

In what is said to be a fall out of growing dissension between old and new guards of the party in Assam, the resignation of the four-time MP and veteran Ahom leader Mr Gohain from the BJP is one of its biggest exit after coming to power in the state.

A part of the BJP for over three decades, Mr Gohain had of late emerged as the most prominent face of internal rifts in the Assam BJP over old guard and new comers allegedly patronised by chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma after he joined the BJP with a large number of Congress leaders in 2015.

Mr Gohain alleged that a key reason for quitting the party was that the present leadership had sidelined its dedicated grassroots workers and did not give due respect to the dedicated workers who sacrificed their youth to advance the party, even after the government was formed in the state in 2016.

He also accused the state government of promoting nepotism and implementing policies that crush local enterprise by imposing new rules regularly that squeeze the livelihoods of local small businessmen and handing over those opportunities to large outsider business groups.

Mr Gohain was elected from the Nagaon parliamentary constituency in the Lok Sabha from 1999 to 2019. He was also the union minister of state for railways during Mr Modi’s first term.

Assam BJP president Dilip Saikia has called Mr Gohain’s resignation unfortunate but attributed it to personal reasons. “Being a senior leader, he should have taken responsibility for addressing the grievances of others in the party,” he said.

“We didn’t join this party for the people who are currently in power. We joined it inspired by Atal Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, and other senior leaders. But the situation (now) is that after bringing people from other parties, the older people who have given the prime of their lives to the BJP have been sidelined,” Mr Gohain said.