More than Bharat, it’s ‘Congress Jodo’ first for strife-torn party in Assam

Guwahati: Since Rahul Gandhi embarked upon his ambitious Bharat Jodo yatra from the Southern part of India, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has started firing salvo against him. Sarma said that India was divided under the Congress regime in 1947 and the Congress leader should go to Pakistan for doing his Bharat Jodo.

Congress leaders came down heavily on Sarma after his remarks with Jairam Ramesh announcing an Assam version of Bharat Jodo yatra which is scheduled to commence on November 1. The state unit of the party has been gearing up for this and a few committees were also formed to look after all preparations for the yatra.

But, the question doing the round in the political spectrum of Assam remains whether people have an interest in the Congress campaign.

Though it is now early to assess, the grassroot party workers are not looking rejuvenated with the concept of the yatra. There is still confusion among cadres regarding this and the state unit has so far failed to galvanize them due to a lack of activities.

On the condition of anonymity, a district Congress president said that the decision to conduct the Assam Jodo yatra was taken in a hurry, and hence there was very little time to convince the party workers. Moreover, the Assam Jodo yatra will not cover the whole state, rather it will commence from the Dhubri district and will end in Sadiya.

However, three-time MLA and working President of Assam Congress, Kamalakya Dey Purkayastha is very optimistic about Assam Jodo yatra. He told IANS, “Congress leaders will traverse 800km distance from Dhubri to Sadiya. We had done a similar yatra in 2011 and Congress retained the power in that assembly election in the state with a thumping majority. I am very hopeful that history will repeat this time.”

Purkayastha was a youth Congress leader then and he recalled the enthusiasm among people at that time.

“When we embarked upon the padayatra, thousands of people came along us. I could see a similar vibe in the ongoing Bharat Jodo yatra also. The people of India still connect with the Congress and this is evident from Rahul Gandhi Ji’s campaign,” he added.

The morale of Congress party workers in Assam is not at its very best now and news of infighting is coming from different district units of the party. A couple of weeks back, at a meeting to discuss the Assam leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, two groups of Congress workers clashed in Assam’s Dhubri district.

Later the local Congress MLA Wazed Ali Choudhary said, “A group raised allegations against the Congress district President. When they raised their issues some of our party workers opposed it & such an untoward incident happened.”

Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah is also in the midst of a controversy starting from allegations of illegal construction at his house to secretly helping BJP in the state. Some of the ruling party leaders even claimed that Borah will be soon joining the saffron camp. Though the Congress leader refuted this claim, the controversy around him refused to die down.

Apart from that, Congress party in Assam has been in serious trouble since last year with the breaking away from the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) to some of its MLAs crossing over to BJP, while a few others were suspended due to anti-party activities.

The Presidential election in July brought more woes for the Congress as it was alleged that many of the party members cast their votes in favour of NDA nominee Droupadi Murmu, the current President of India. The top brass warned of stern punishment against those ‘traitors’, yet after three months, the party could hardly take any action.

At this juncture, the party leaders are expecting that the Assam version of Bharat Jodo yatra will infuse new lease of life in Congress and will rejuvenate the organisation, however, this may be gauged only after November.