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Infighting plagues Assam Congress unit

The infighting within the Assam Pradesh Congress unit reached its peak on Thursday when Ranee Narah, Member of Parliament and president of the Assam Youth Congress defied the party leadership and decided to go ahead with a 12-hour statewide bandh on Friday.

The Youth Congress has called the bandh to protest against the spate of violent incidents that have rocked the state since mid-October killing of over 50 people. The Youth Congress has demanded imposition of President's rule in the state.

Assam is scheduled to have assembly elections in May 2001.

However, the Assam Pradesh Congress leadership, under president Tarun Gogoi, has not supported the bandh. Party general secretary and Member of Legislative Assembly Sarat Barkakoti says the Congress is opposed to the bandh culture.

"There are many ways to lodge a protest against the government, bandh is certainly not one of them," he said.

Nevertheless, Narah has gone on the offensive against senior leaders for what she calls their 'gutless' stand. She charged Barkakoti and Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Silvius Condpan of having secret links with the ruling Asom Gana Parishad.

"I have enough evidence against these two of hobnobbing with AGP ministers and Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta," Narah, the lone woman MP from Assam said.

She has been at loggerheads with the party leadership for almost a year now. Last month, a high-powered delegation led by Gogoi had met party president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi demanding Narah's removal from the state Youth Congress presidentship.

A last-minute intervention by Hemaprabha Saikia, widow of the former chief minister Hiteswar Saikia, however, saved the day for Narah. The Saikias are close to the Gandhi family.

In fact, Hemaprabha Saikia has been the target of the Gogoi faction ever since her husband died a week before the assembly elections in 1996. Congress was ousted from power in that election. Gogoi has accused Saikia of having close secret links with Chief Minister Mahanta.

The infighting of course suits Mahanta since he is likely to face a tough election in the coming summer.

Meanwhile, the bandh that began at 0500 hours (IST) on Friday evoked little response, mainly because people in general were fed up with frequent disruptions in their day-to-day life.

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