All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and party's youth icon Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday appealed to the voters in Assam to elect a Congress government with Tarun Gogoi as Chief Minister for another term.
Mr. Gandhi's endorsement of Mr. Gogoi came at a time when speculation was rife among the Congress rank and file that a new leader would be chosen as the next Chief Minister in the event of the party doing a hat-trick.
He was addressing an election rally of Congress candidate Rekibuddin Ahmed for the Chaygaon Assembly constituency in lower Assam's Kamrup district. The rally was also addressed among others by Mr. Gogoi and PCC president Bhubaneswar Kalita. The former Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) Minister and sitting legislator Kamala Kalita is the local party candidate from this constituency.
Mr. Gandhi, who hit the Congress campaign trail in the State for the second and final phase of polling scheduled for April 11, claimed that in 2001 when Mr. Gogoi assumed office, insurgency was at its peak but over the past 10 years the Congress government under his leadership had brought both peace and development to the State. He also addressed two other election rallies to campaign for Congress candidates from the Raha and the Majbat Assembly constituencies during his daylong election tour of the State.
‘A visionary'
He described Mr. Gogoi as “a visionary and an experienced leader” and said youth were getting attracted to the party under his leadership and exuded confidence that Assam would continue to benefit if Mr. Gogoi was given another mandate.
He alleged that when the AGP was in power, the regional party maintained that development could not take place without peace. “However, the AGP could neither bring peace nor development. Mr. Gogoi has brought both peace and development in Assam,” Mr. Gandhi added.
He claimed that while during the AGP regime, the government employees were not getting salaries regularly and the growth rate was only two per cent, the Tarun Gogoi-led government ensured regular payment of salaries to the government employees, constructed 25,000 km of roads and achieved a growth rate of eight per cent.
