With the Assembly elections fast approaching, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi says his main fight is with Prime Minister Narendra Modi rather than Union Minister for Sports Sarbananda Sonowal, the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate.
“Forget Sonowal, my fight is directly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, since whether it is Sonowal, or A, B C or D Minister, all will only be following the policies laid down by Mr. Modi,” the Chief Minister, fighting the anti-incumbency factor after the Congress’s three terms in power, said in an exclusive interview to The Hindu .
He said he had demonstrable proof of Union Ministers being disempowered in the Modi dispensation. “The Home Minister did not know when the Naga Accord was signed and I doubt he has a hand in gubernatorial appointments. Even the Minister for Development of North East Region [DONER] is most helpless,” he said.
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The Assam Assembly elections are going to be closely fought between the Congress and the BJP. Tarun Gogoi, who won by a surprise handsome margin in his third term in 2011, says he knows the mantra of beating the anti-incumbency factor.
He is hoping that the coming elections will be about Narendra Modi’s 20-month rule at the Centre rather than his own decade-and-a-half rule in the State.
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In an exclusive interview to The Hindu, he says: “Mr. Modi had said the moment he came to power that all infiltration would be finished, and Gogoi’s red carpet to infiltrators would be rolled up. It has been 20 months since. Who has stopped him from honouring what he promised? Has he been able to do it? He has the intelligence services. If we had given shelter to infiltrators, he would have known it. On the borders, it is the central forces that are responsible for checking infiltration. If you check the performance of even NDA-I and compare it with the UPA’s 10-year rule, our performance was much better.”
Mr. Gogoi said he favoured a “Maha understanding” rather than a Bihar-style Mahagathbandhan in Assam. He included the CPI, the CPI(M), the All Assam Students Union and the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in this loose grouping. However, he said he was unsure of AIUDF leader Badruddin Ajmal. “I have a suspicion that he may have a secret understanding with the BJP,” he said.