Twenty-four rebel Congress MLAs say they will abide by the decision of party president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi on replacing Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, but they will continue to pursue their demand for a change of leadership within the party forum.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the MLAs said they hoped the party leadership would consider the majority opinion expressed before the party observer. Ardhendu Kumar Dey and Siddeque Ahmed, who were dropped from the Ministry, were signatories to the statement, but Himanta Biswa Sarma, who resigned as Minister, was not.
The Congress has 77 MLAs in the Assembly which now has a strength of 123 after three seats fell vacant. The rebels said they had in mind the prospects of the Congress in the 2016 Assembly election.
“No personal aspersion can be, or ought to be, cast on our stand made in the best interest of the party,” they said in the statement.
The statement comes after some dissidents switched camp and Mr. Gogoi initiated discussions with Ministers and legislators to end differences and evolve a strategy for the smooth conduct of the Budget session beginning August 4.
Earlier, Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhubaneswar Kalita warned the rebel MLAs against violating party discipline. Dr. Sarma had submitted his resignation to the Governor bypassing the Chief Minister, which was “unconstitutional” and against the decision of the party high command.
Mr. Kalita, however, said efforts were on to end the differences within the party.
Dr. Sarma, after submitting his resignation, announced that the MLAs who had gone to the Raj Bhavan on July 21 conveyed to Governor J.B. Patnaik that they had lost confidence in Mr. Gogoi and they would be playing the role of a “constructive Opposition” in the House. He, however, clarified that they would obey party whip.
