Congress expels Assam's senior neta Ajanta Neog from party, her next move under scanner

Amid leadership vacuum in Congress, there is no end to the setback for the grand-old party. Now, Assam Congress leader Ajanta Neog, a senior minister in late Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's all three governments, was on Friday expelled from the party for her alleged anti-party activities. She later resigned both as an MLA and all positions of the party on similar allegations. Neog had recently met Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma triggering speculations that she would join the ruling BJP, following which she was asked by the state's party leadership to show cause why action should not be taken against her.

Speculations are rife that she would join the BJP during Union Home Minister Amit Shah''s three-day visit to the North East. Assam Pradesh Congress Committee's General Secretary (Organisation) Ranjan Bora said that Neog has been expelled from the "primary membership of the Indian National Congress for her anti-party activity with immediate effect". AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal in a release issued from New Delhi said that the Congress President has approved the proposal of expulsion of Ajanta Neog.

Neog, after her expulsion from the party, in a letter to APCC President Ripun Bora stated that she was resigning from all positions, including primary membership, of the Congress with immediate effect. She further stated in the letter that she has also resigned as member of the Assam Legislative Assembly where she represented the Golaghat assembly constituency. Her snapping of ties with the Congress comes barely a month after the death of Tarun Gogoi on November 23. Neog, the former minister, who was a close confidante of the late former chief minister, had held important portfolios of Social Welfare and Public Works departments during his tenure.

BJP's reaction on Neog's expulsion

Reacting on the development, BJP's Himanta Biswa Sarma said that Neog's recent meeting with the chief minister in which he was also present was regarding the establishment of the Sati Sadhini University in her Golaghat constituency. He stated that it was given "a political colour by the media, based on which the Congress expelled her." 

"Many legislators meet me in my office and it is unfortunate that her meeting with us where no political discussion was held was given a political colour,'' he said.

On speculations of her joining the saffron party, Sarma said, "It is not unnatural that now if she expresses the desire to join the BJP, discussions will be held with her by the ruling party as she is a prominent leader of the state." Sarma added that Lakhipur legislator Rajdeep Goala, who was also expelled from the Congress in October this year, and independent legislator Bhuban Pegu are likely to meet the Union Home Minister on Saturday.

Home Minister and ex-BJP chief Amit Shah reached Assam on Friday night as his three-days visit to the state as well as Manipur begins. Sources have said that his visit is related to the preparations for upcoming Assam Assembly Elections.

Assam assembly elections 2021

The election to the 126-member Assam Assembly is likely in March-April next year. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is currently the single largest party with 60 MLAs, while its allies the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People's Front (BPF) have 14 and 12 legislators respectively with the independent MLA also supporting the ruling coalition. The opposition Congress has 22 MLAs at present, while the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) has 14 members in the legislative assembly. 

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Congress preps for party chief elections

In the last Congress' Central Election Authority (CEA) meeting, updating party delegates’ list, logistical preparedness and time frame for notifying the poll schedule and date of voting were discussed, as per reports. Reports state that Congress will choose its next chief in a digital AICC meeting via the electoral college process in January-February 2021 and hence Sonia Gandhi is set to meet some of the prominent members of the 'dissenters', who had written to her demanding an overhaul of the party, on December 19-20.  According to ANI sources, the demand for Rahul Gandhi to take over the top post was raised at the meeting, to which the ex-Congress chief said that it must be left to the electoral process. As per reports, CEA is drawing up a voters list of around 1500 AICC delegates and is planning to hold digital elections, marking a first - with the term of the presidency will be only for 2 years.

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Congress president saga

Congress has been in a leadership dilemma since Rahul Gandhi quit as party chief in the post-Lok Sabha 2019 debacle. This led to a barrage of resignations from posts like Milind Deora, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Priyanka Chaturvedi and many more. Amidst a lot of turmoil with Priyanka Vadra too being considered, Congress finally went back to their safe option- Sonia Gandhi. Most leaders have time and again implored the 50-year-old Rahul Gandhi to take back the reins of the party, but he has not budged.

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