Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that Sonia Gandhi had asked him to decide on his swearing-in date as CM in 2014, but the situation changed after Rahul Gandhi intervened. Sarma, who later joined the BJP, believes the events led him to a better position to serve Assam and Sanatan dharma.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has accused Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi of having a 'deeper connection' with a Pakistani national and violating FCRA rules, prompting calls for a national probe.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that the state cabinet will decide on the future course of action regarding the SIT report on Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi's alleged links with Pakistan on February 7. The SIT report suggests direct links between Gogoi, his wife, and Pakistan.
He felt that if one "approaches the negative in a positive manner", things automatically fall into place.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has accused Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi's British wife of collecting intelligence documents on behalf of the Pakistani climate lobby. Sarma claims to have documentary evidence of Gogoi and his wife's ties with Pakistan and will reveal everything publicly by September 10. Gogoi has denied the allegations, calling them a "C-grade Bollywood movie" and stating that he has only visited Pakistan once 12 years ago. Sarma alleges that Gogoi's wife, Elizabeth Colburn, worked for the climate lobby and had a close relationship with Pakistan.
He was 84 and survived by wife Dolly, daughter Chandrima and son Gaurav. Gogoi, a three-time chief minister, breathed his last at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital at 5.34 pm, Sarma said.
The BJP, however, denied the former three-time state chief minister's assertion on Ranjan Gogoi who was nominated as a Rajya Sabha member by the government in March.
After arriving in Guwahati on a special flight from Goa, Gandhi straightaway reached Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra, where the three-time chief minister's body has been kept for the public to pay their last respect.
Slamming Tarun Gogoi for the police firing in Guwahati on June 22 in which a 9-year-old boy was killed, social activist Swami Agnivesh on Thursday said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should 'embarrass' the Assam chief minister by taking out a padayatra in Guwahati. "Just as Rahul Gandhi has undertaken a padayatra in Uttar Pradesh to embarrass (Chief Minister) Mayawati, the prime minister who represents Assam in Parliament should go on a padayatra here".
'Gogoi will be remembered as someone who recovered Assam as a state, as a people and society from the fear of insurgency that had struck the state from the 1980s till 2000.'
The Assam government is making preparations for around 1,000 people to attend the last rites of former chief minister Tarun Gogoi, to be performed with full state honours at the Nabagraha cremation ground on Thursday, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Tarun Gogoi is all set to become the chief minister of Assam for the third consecutive term with the Congress Legislature Party unanimously electing him as its leader in the meet held at the central hall of Assam assembly complex in Guwahati on Tuesday afternoon. The meeting was held in the presence of the All India Congress Committee observers in-charge of Assam Pranab Mukherjee and Digvijay Singh, state Pradesh Congress chief Bhubaneswar Kalita and many senior leaders.
The Congress has appointed Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi as the new president of its Assam unit, replacing Bupen Kumar Borah, ahead of the 2026 assembly elections. The party also appointed three new working presidents - Jakir Hussain Sikdar, Roselina Tirkey and Pradip Sarkar - to its Assam unit. Gogoi, the son of former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi, is currently the deputy leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha. The party is going all-out in its bid to wrest power from the BJP after losing two consecutive state polls.
On November 26, Gogoi's last journey will start from Kalakshetra and his cremation will take place in Guwahati instead of his hometown Titabor.
The 86-year old veteran Congress politician, who was on Non Invasive Ventilation (NIV) since he was admitted at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on November 2 due to post-COVID complications, was put under invasive ventilation, the minister said.
Amid the chanting of hymns, preceded by a gun salute and band played by the Assam Police, the state's longest serving chief minister's mortal remains were consigned to flames by his son Gaurav Gogoi.
Gogoi's final journey began on Tuesday morning from Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), where he breathed his last due to post-COVID-19 complications, to his official residence in Dispur.
The octogenarian Congress leader, undergoing treatment at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital for post-COVID complications, is being monitored by a team of nine doctors, GMCH Superintendent Abhijit Sarma said.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi to brief her about the political situation in the state where dissidents were demanding change of guard after the party's poor show in Lok Sabha polls.
Doctors have advised the 85-year-old politician to stay in home isolation.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi rejected Tarun Gogoi's offer to resign after the party's poor performance in the state. Anurag Kashyap reports.
During the day, doctors completed the first round of dialysis to improve his kidney function and normalise his urine output, the GMCH superintendent told reporters.
Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday took oath as the chief minister of Assam for the third consecutive term. Governor J B Patnaik administered the oath of office to Gogoi in a function at Darbar Hall of Raj Bhavan in presence of a host of dignitaries and the newly elected Congress legislators.Immediately after taking oath as the CM, Gogoi told the media that the top priority for the new government would be to expedite the development process in the state.
Speaking to the press at Gauhati Medical College Hospital where the Congress veteran died while undergoing treatment for post-COVID-19 complications, a sobbing Gaurav said that his father fought till the end.
Veteran doctor and educationist from Karnataka Belle Monappa Hegde and archaeology legend B B Lal were also given the Padma Vibhushan awards.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into allegations of Pakistan links of Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi's British wife Elizabeth Colburn. Sarma alleged that Colburn had visited Pakistan after her marriage and that there are apprehensions of ISI infiltration into the Chief Minister's Office when Gogoi's father, the late Tarun Gogoi, was the chief minister. Sarma also shared screenshots of social media posts by Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, an advisor of the Pakistan Planning Commission and a former colleague of Colburn, claiming that the relationship between the Gogois and Sheikh appeared to be "deeply rooted." Sarma's allegations have been rejected by the Congress as "laughable and entertaining."
The 84-year old veteran Congressman, who died from post-COVID complications on Monday, was a Nehru-Gandhi family loyalist.
Former CM Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday accepted his responsibility for the Congress' debacle in Assam assembly polls.
Rahul claimed that the Assam CM has taken land in Kaziranga National Park.
As the news of former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's demise broke, leaders across the political spectrum paid tribute to the Assam leader.
'Someone who cannot even take his cabinet into confidence, how will he take the NDA alliance into confidence?'
The Congress on Tuesday announced its second list of 43 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, fielding Kamal Nath's son Nakul Nath once again from Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara and Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot from Rajasthan's Jalore.
Eight Union ministers, two former chief ministers and one ex-governor are among those who are set to test their electoral fate in the first phase of elections on April 19 when 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories will go to polls.
Gogoi and Sarma have been locked in a war of words on 'X' since Wednesday on the issue of the chief minister's wife's company allegedly being given a credit subsidy of Rs 10 crore.
The youngest in the CWC is 31-year-old Neeraj Kundan, who is an ex-officio member of the body as the president of the National Students Union of India, the students' wing of the party.
'There are more young people in Assam who are unemployed than possibly anywhere else.'
'It is difficult to replace him because if he is replaced, it will lead to a sense of defeat among the Meiteis, rightly or wrongly, and more chaos.'
"NDA is a beautiful rainbow of regional aspirations... So nation's development through the development of states... At a time when we are working for a developed India, NDA is taking the lead in showing the spirit of sabka prayas," he said.
Sounding the Congress' poll bugle in the state, Gandhi attacked the Modi government repeatedly alleging that it was working with an approach of 'Hum do, Hamare do' -- a term he recently used while speaking in Lok Sabha to claim that the country is being run by only four people.
Even if the Congress is unable to defeat the political appeal of Narendra Modi, the resources and talent of the BJP and its managers, it is relying on issues like the Citizenship Amendment Act and the perceived threat to Assamese identity, along with the future threat of the National People's Register to ensure it continues to be a force in the state. Aditi Phadnis reports.
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