Gogoi meets Antony, Joshi over dissidence

GUWAHATI: After executing instructions from AICC to accept Himanta Biswa Sarma’s resignation and drop two rebel ministers from the ministry, chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday met AICC disciplinary action committee member A K Antony in New Delhi to discuss the ongoing crisis in the state.
After a 40-minute meeting with Antony and AICC general secretary C P Joshi, Gogoi said, “We will discuss the matter again.Antony and Joshi will later brief the high command. We have decided that we will abide by whatever decision the high command takes.”
Sonia Gandhi gave Antony the task of resolving the crisis in the party in Assam last month. The high command has already announced that Gogoi will continue to remain the chief minister. However, dissidence is far from being over, though efforts are on to negotiate a rapprochement between Gogoi and the rebels.
All eyes are now on the Congress high command, as people wait to see what disciplinary action it will take against the dissident MLAs.
State Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhubaneswar Kalita said the dissident MLAs have violated party discipline by meeting the governor on their own when Sarma submitted his resignation. Kalita also said Sarma has violated discipline by submitting his resignation to the governor, instead of the chief minister. He added that the party unit is awaiting further orders from the high command on possible disciplinary action.
The dissidents are now lying low after the chief minister accepted Sarma’s resignation and followed it up by dropping two rebel ministers, Ardhendu Dey and Siddique Ahmed.