BJP leaders and workers to take battle to the home turf of Gautom Roy
SILCHAR, September 7: The way the workers and supporters of Congress attacked the 200 strong motor bike rally of Yuva Morcha and went berserk to disrupt the street corner meeting of BJP in the home turf of Gautom Roy, Minister of PHE, on Thursday, has evoked widespread condemnation from political circles of Barak Valley. The rally and meeting were part of the ongoing mass contact programme of the saffron party in coordination with its sister organizations to drum up support and to sound the bugle for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. In fact, it was also an exercise to boost up the workers of the party who had been lying low before the browbeating tactics of the minister.
Significantly, in the wake of the saffron surge of 90’s, of the three Assembly seats in Hailakandi district, Katlicherra and Hailakandi were wrested from Congress by BJP. After that, the leaders and the workers were somewhat subdued. The seat of Algapur which was the bastion of Congress since the first general elections went to AGP in 1985 and again it was regained by Congress in the by poll of 2013.
BJP under the leadership of the newly elected State president, Sarbananda Sonowal, has been activated and the district level leaders of Hailakandi and Karimganj have put in all their strength to galvanize the organization from the grassroots level. After successfully completing ‘ghar–ghar chalo, gaon gaon chalo,’ campaign, motor bike rally and street corner meetings in Hailakandi to begin with have been taken up. The wide response it generated among the youths in particular and people in general in the Hailakandi district, considered by Gautom Roy as his fiefdom, has created consternation in the minister’s camp.
Faced with the twin challenge of BJP and AIUDF, Gautom Roy has now no alternative than to make the rallies and meetings of his opponents, mainly BJP, his target. The saffron Yuva Morcha brigade could hold the rally and meeting at Hailakandi town and Lala. The large turnout at meetings and the reception the rallies received on their way jolted and jerked the minister’s henchmen and supporters who thought it wise in their own way to halt the march of BJP. The attack and disruption took place in the very presence of police which BJP leaders described as a brazen display of their servile subservience to the minister.
Parimal Shuklabaidya, former MLA and State vice–president of the party, dubbed the attackers on rally and meeting as the ‘goonda brigade of Gautom Roy,’ whom he described not only an affront on democracy but also an incompetent minister. He said everything was premeditated and preplanned and done at the behest of the minister. He alleged his ‘goonda brigade’ first misbehaved with the female workers of the party and then targeted the rally and the meeting.
Gautom Roy’s henchmen, he further alleged, were armed with sharp weapon, rod, lathi and other missiles and two of his workers, Saikat Dutta Choudhury and Ajay Bhattacharya, were injured.
Mission Ranjan Das, ex–MLA and also a State vice–president, said if Congress leaders like Gautom Roy thought the movement of BJP could be thwarted, he was living in a fool’s paradise. He was shaken because the rally that would cover all the eight constituencies of Karimganj Lok Sabha seat would expose how the two national projects, Silchar–Lumding BG and East–West Corridor, had become the goldmine for Congress ministers of Barak Valley and they were squarely to be blamed for its abnormal delay and even their desperate attempt to scuttle them. Mission Ranjan Das added to say the people of Barak Valley could realize that the ministers were only feeding them with false promises.
In the meantime, after being apprised of the developments, State BJP president, Sarbananda Sonowal, in a message advised the leaders and workers not to be cowed down but to go all hog to take the battle to the very domain of Gautom Roy and upset his apple cart. Ashok Dutta Gupta, Hailakandi district president of Congress, refuted the allegations that the attack and disruption were done at the behest of Gautom Roy.
Source The Sentinel 08.09.2013